Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: Mentor Graphics UK | Subject: Expedition and Board Station RE
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 21 December 2004
PCB tools address flex circuit
requirements
Mentor Graphics has incorporated advanced design capabilities for flex and rigid-flex boards into its Expedition and Board Station RE PCB layout tools.
Mentor Graphics has incorporated advanced design capabilities for flex and rigid-flex boards into its Expedition and Board Station RE PCB layout tools Mentor Graphics is meeting the growing need of customers in the telecomms and consumer electronics industries who are increasingly adopting flex PCB technology for applications requiring high functionality in small, handheld form factors
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 21 Feb 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The use of flex PCBs is not new but until recently had been relegated to very specialised uses such as automotive dashboards and other flexible connection methods such as laptops.
These limited applications were designed using mostly manual, layout methods.
Now the use of flex PCBs is pervasive in cellphones, PDAs, digital cameras and most other space constrained, high functionality consumer products.
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For example, most handheld digital cameras now include a single rigid-flex board folded into the form factor.
In these highly competitive markets time-to-market is paramount and product life cycles are short.
Designers need the same levels of design productivity for flex that they have for their rigid boards.
"Industry statistics show that a significant portion of the growth in PCB manufacturing will be in flex and rigid-flex production", said Henry Potts, Vice President and General Manager, Systems Design Division, Mentor Graphics.
"We anticipated this trend based on interactions with some of our major customers in the telecom and consumer electronics industries and invested to enhance our solutions to meet their needs".
Mentor Graphics has enhanced its leading AutoActive placement and routing environment in its Board Station and Expedition design flows to allow the definition and checking of the complex rules for flex circuit design while maintaining the high levels of productivity offered with the AutoActive tool"s push-and-shove and multiple-plough routing.
These flex rules include curved trace settings by area, complex contour following for routes, teardrops at pins, T-junctions and route width changes, cross-hatching of shielding areas, and selective pad modifications.
These rules enable the complex shapes of flex circuits as well as maintain product reliability after severe bending.
Now designers can achieve the same levels of productivity for flex circuits as they experience for rigid PCBs.
These flex circuit enhancements are available immediately and can be purchased as options to the Expedition Series and Board Station RE flows.
Pricing starts at US $7500 per year.
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