DIY Flexible Printed Circuits

Step 5 Populate the board

The flex PCB is now ready to cut apart into small circuits (if that's your plan) and to solder. You can tape it onto a piece of metal or a regular fiberglass circuit board to hold it steady while working on it. "Tinnit" nickel plating solution or similar can be used to make it easier to solder to, but the freshly etched and cleaned flex PCB is easily soldered as is.

Because it is a 1-sided PCB, without holes, it is most useful as a tiny cable or as a board for surface mount parts. Use jumpers if necessary for traces to cross on your layout.

Comments

[Mighty El Rondo]

Also note that it would be a good idea to use DeoxIt or similar product to not only clean any potential residue from the circuits on your shiny new PCB, but to also protect it as well, this is an important step.

[jorbe2]

Sorry I want to add this link:

http://www.taiyo-america.com/products-cc.php

This is the right solder mask product for flexible PCBs.

[jorbe2]

hi guys, my first comment on instructables:

you can find the pyralux at insulectro.com:
http://insulectro.com/index.php?page=58#

I'm not sure if we can use a solder mask (PSR-4000 BN) with this material:
http://www.taiyo-america.com/products-LPI.php

After solder mask try:
Solder paste & the skillet method, check kapton temps first, I'm not sure about this.

:)

[godfodder]

anybody know where one can purchase a few sheets of copper clad kapton? ebay was suggested, but no luck there...

[dl5012]

Hi,

What substrate thickness are you looking for? I have some sheets in the 0.005-0.016 range that I could part with. Don't know if the substrate is kapton, but they're flexible. I don't have specs (copper thickness), but can look for them if you're interested.

I'm not a regular here; you can contact me on the Yahoo ecbarter group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ecbarter/join

Regards,
DL

[marcob8890]

Hi, I was wondering if you still had any spare sheets. The thickness you mentioned would work(0.005-0.016) for my project. If you do let me know what price and the overall size. I'm serious and won't waste your time. Best regards, Marcob8890

[phirzcol]

so do many devices could be repaired with this method including a laptop in my workspace godsend instructible

[indomgl]

Can you explain to me how to solder components to flex PCB? I need to solder a component which broke off from flex PCB (orange color like yours), will the solder heat melt the board? What temperature I should use? Thank you very much.

[ckharnett]

Try to set the soldering iron at ~700 F ~(375 C) or less, and the material should be OK for short durations, especially if you tape the flex PCB onto a metal sheet as a heatsink. Then it's very similar to an ordinary circuit board.

[indomgl]

Thanks for your reply. I also found out that this material is called Kapton developed by DuPont which designed to stand heat up to 400C. But how do we distinguish whether it's Kapton or not? Just by the orange color? I'm trying to repair flex PCB from a cellphone. Is there any caution which I need to be aware of? Thanks again for your tips, I really appreciated. ;)