MINNEAPOLIS, MN, June 26, 2006 – Minco, a designer and manufacturer of critical components for critical applications, today announced the launch of its Flex Circuits Design Kit for engineers who are serious about incorporating flex circuitry into their projects.

The Flex Circuits Design Kit provides design engineers with everything they need to start incorporating flexible circuits into their designs.

“Flex circuits offer the same advantages as printed circuit boards: repeatability, reliability, and high density. However, the most important attribute that has made designers adopt flex circuit technology is the capability to design three-dimensional configurations,” said Merle Tingelstad, global marketing manager for the flex circuits division. “Flex circuits also respond to the industry need for smaller, thinner and lighter components, by providing compact, low mass packaging that can reduce space and weight by up to 75%.”

The Minco Flex Circuit Design Kit comes with a Start-up Guide that details design guidelines, specifications and manufacturing procedures supported by detailed illustrations with descriptive call-outs as well as a glossary of commonly used terms. The Kit also includes a Design Kit Sample case that holds over 25 actual pieces of raw material and circuit examples. Understanding the intrinsic nature of these pieces and how they interact when stacked-up can impact the quality of a flex circuit.
“Although flex circuits are made to bend, most field failures occur as a result of these bending or flexing operations,” said Mark Finstad, principle application engineer for the flex circuits division. “To avoid failures, a designer must factor in all parameters that involve bending and flexing including bend radii, dielectric thickness and type, foil weight, copper plating, number of layers, and number of flexures.”

Minco’s Flex Circuit Design Kit also comes with an offer for a free mechanical sample of your design made with actual flex circuit stack-up materials. A mechanical sample ensures that a flex circuit is the right size and shape and is properly constructed for its environmental interfaces which will help avoid installation problems or latent mechanical issues that could cause failures.
Also included in the Kit is a CD compilation of technical documents and nationally published articles written by Tingelstad and Finstad.