PFC Flexible Circuits
Bridging the Gap of Manufacturing in Flexible Circuits

When an idea for a product is born, turning that into a manufacturable product for the market is not always the easiest task. In the world of flexible circuits, the struggle often lies in fabrication and as a result, it becomes difficult to bring the product to market quickly and in good quality. Ontario-based PFC bridges that gap with their ability to take a customer’s idea for a product and providing upfront early design assistance while also making the product more manufacturable. The company specializes in fabricating flex circuits for medical applications, specifically wearables as well as other critical life-saving products such as defibrillators, ventilators, and other products related to the medical industry.

While PFC’s prowess lies in the design, manufacture, and assembly of flexible circuits, the company manufactures rigid flex circuits as well. Gus Trakas, Vice-President and General Manager of PFC Flexible Circuits says, “We help the customer design a circuit while also helping them with the fabrication, all in all providing a full turnkey service.” Also, for clients that require assembly, PFC has in-house assembly lines to essentially provide that service in addition to any post-assembly testing. The company has also been ISO 13485 approved for 15 years.

PFC further assists customers with component selection, as Michael Morando, Director of Sales of PFC Flexible Circuits explains, “If a customer were to approach PFC with a concept design, we would guide them down the most manufacturable path to create the product.” As for a stackup, which is PFC’s recipe for the arrangement of the various layers within the circuit, they guide the customer with a proposal that would feed the customer’s design needs but also be manufacturable by the company profitably. PFC then carries out a full review of the design, after which the customer can corroborate the comments from PFC and submit a final package for manufacturing to the company.

As a follow up on how they provide guidance with a product concept, Morando mentions a customer that showed PFC a design for a wearable with a flex circuit that was cracking.

We help the customer design a circuit while also helping them with the fabrication, all in all providing a full turnkey service

PFC realized that the circuit was too thick and it was bending too tight for its application. They promptly provided the customer with design advice on how to thin out the flex circuit, remove a couple of layers from the stackup, and use appropriately sized vias and tracks to make sure they were robust. As PFC provided the customer with a final stackup for redesigning their circuit, the company also built some prototypes for them. The customer’s testing showed that all the changes that PFC had requested, worked and their wearable was back to being functional again in this final setting.

PFC strives to achieve faster turnaround times for customers, for which the company has focused on installing upgrades to their wet processing department, which will lead them down the path of improved capability and technology. In other areas, the company is excited about expanding into the automotive market in North America as they are looking at IATF 16949 certification in 2021, which means they have all the requirements in-house, approved and certified, to keep the customers happy. Moreover, on the medical front, PFC is aiming for increased capability with improved laser routing systems and expanding on their equipment to be able to deliver products, especially for the wearables market. This fast-growing sector involves a lot of miniature-scale processing, so PFC wants to ensure that their equipment base is able to handle the evolution of these products from utilizing standard flex circuits to the more miniaturized version that is trending in the medical and commercial sectors.

“We are continuously enhancing our ability to take a customer design and translate it into manufacturing data faster as well as upgrading key pieces of equipment within our facility to get to that next step,” concludes Trakas