Base materials are the foundation elements of every flexible circuits being used today. Over the last six 10 years of flexible circuit innovation, a wide range of both dielectric materials as well as conductors have actually been utilized in the fabrication of flexible circuits. As discussed in Chapter 2 – Flexible Circuit Technology Past, Present and also Future, one of the earliest summaries
of just what could be called a flex circuit can be located in a 1903 British patent issued to Albert Hansen that referred to a building and construction consisting of level metal conductors on paraffin coated paper. One more theoretical substrate was the bed linen paper building and construction with formed circuits of graphite-loaded gum tissue adhesive that Edison defined to his then assistant Frank Sprague (later of Sprague Electric fame), maybe on behalf of several of Sprague’s electrical electric motor ideas. Really, the disclosure was among lots of prescient minutes in Edison’s life as a creator, for it turns out he was not far from future growths in his reasoning. Polymer thick movie and also additive circuits these days fit well under the umbrella of the structures he defined greater than 100 yeas earlier. Most lately, paper has been pointed out yet once again as a substrate for printed electronics, a branch of flexible circuits. Chapter 11– Printed Electronics will show that the concept of printing transistors on paper is much older compared to one could imagine as well as was demonstrated in the 1960s.

While many different products have been attempted as well as utilized to some degree gradually, just a couple of base products are in wide use today in flex circuit construction. This chapter will examine those usual products together with some more recent choices for flex circuit applications. Nonetheless, it is worth examining what is desirable from a flexible circuit base material to develop a standard for assumptions.