Joining to Flexible and Printed Electronics

The use of flexible electronics and 3D-printed electronics are both emerging applications in consumer, medical device, and military electronics. With these exciting products, joining of these materials has become a need.

Presently, only soldering is used in prototyping and low-volume manufacturing, which is not an ideal process for high-volume manufacturing due to limitations of speed, joint size, and strength.

Parallel gap and ultrasonic welding are joining processes that could effectively replace soldering in manufacturing these electronics. Both are relatively fast processes with minimal heat input. Welded joints with these processes would be more reliable, more rugged, and withstand higher temperatures than soldered joints.

In this presentation, process data and recommendations will be provided for joining to flex circuits and printed electronics. These methods eliminate the need for soldering and provide a higher-speed, lower profile, and lower-cost interconnections for a wide range of electronics products.