Flexible Circuit Technologies

Flexible Circuit Technologies (FCT) is a premier global supplier of custom interconnects including flexible circuits, rigid flex, flexible heaters, membrane switches, plastic moldings, value-added assembly and product module to complete product box builds.  It starts with design where FCT brings the industry’s top expertise to our customers; each of our Sr. Application Engineers offer above 30 years of expertise in designing specialty interconnects.  Our deep expertise will guide you to cost effective solutions that will perform within the most challenging medical applications. 

Flexible Circuit Technologies provides engineering, program management and customer care out of our USA based headquarters and coordinates production at our various FCT facilities in Asia.

FCT’s new state-of-the-art flex, rigid flex, HDI, flex heater production facility – Zhuhai, China

Trends in electronics are transforming healthcare within the medical device industry. This includes IoT for medical, device connectivity, 5G technology, miniaturization, mobility, wearables, challenging form factors, disposables and more; all driving the growing needs for custom interconnects.

Circuit Design, Consultation, Optimization and Support

Flexible Circuit Technologies provides our customers with the top application engineering expertise in the industry. Superior support begins with application engineers who understand the materials, material properties, what can and cannot be done, who have addressed thousands of projects and designs.

Through design review, consultation, and optimization, we guide customers to the most cost-effective solutions; often helping to attain savings that can lead to a 10% to 25% improvement in costs.  Savings attained on the front end of your project far outweigh the savings attained when simply seeking a lower  piece price. 

Superior Design and CAD support services

Flexible Circuits

Trends continue to drive product design engineers to flexible printed circuits (FPC)  given their ability to meet more challenging requirements where wire harnesses and board to board connectors cannot be utilized.  From simple applications to complex, the versatility of flexible printed circuits is unmatched. Flexible Circuit Technologies has designed thousands of FPCs for our medical device customers.  Our designs and products are utilized in a broad range of medical applications including: diagnostics, patient monitoring, patient treatment, disposables, surgical devices/robotics and instruments, heated instruments, wearable devices and much more.

Custom Flexible Circuits designed for your specific medical device application

Rigid Flex

The same trends are driving design engineers to rigid flexible circuit solutions where one is seeking to pack more electronic capability into smaller spaces. A rigid flex design can meet unique challenges where a rigid board or flexible circuit simply cannot be utilized. Rigid flex circuits combine the best of both rigid boards and flexible circuits integrated together into one circuit. Rigid Flex solutions involve materials including FR4 and polyimide that often do not play well together and therefore getting to a design that is manufacturable at high yields can be challenging. FCT brings significant design expertise to rigid flex solutions that will lead you to higher yields and improved costs.

Flexible Heaters

Flexible heaters are typically single layer flexible circuits that utilize copper or resistive alloys, such as Inconel and Cupro-nickel to form conductive paths. As electrical current is driven through the higher resistance conductors, heat is generated. Conductor width and thickness are selected to provide the desired resistance value based on the supply voltage. Dielectric materials are selected based on operating temp and heater density.

FCT has developed a broad range of custom flexible heaters that are utilized within medical device applications. This includes for medical instruments, treatments, comfort, and more. FCT will support you with your design needs to get you to a custom solution that will perform flawlessly. We design to your specific needs and further have UL KSOT 2 and KSOT 8 certified stack ups and are able to design solutions to take advantage of these pre-approved stack ups.

Prototyping, Production and Assembly

Flexible Circuit Technologies offers multiple bare board production facilities and state of the art EMS/SMT Assembly. We are ISO9001, ISO14001, ISO13485, IATF16949, RoHS compliant, UL registered, and also produce FDA registered product box builds. We provide medical customers with high quality bare circuit boards, circuit assemblies, product modules to complete medical product box builds. Given our muti-production facility approach we offer significant flexibility in our ability to meet your prototyping needs and low to high volume production needs.

FCT offers one of the most experienced “assembly on flex” teams on the globe. Assembly on flexible circuits is challenging due to unstable materials that don’t lay flat, that shrink and grow with humidity and that are challenging to handle and work with. FCT’s EMS/Assembly team deploys specialized fixtures, methods, processes, and know how that allows us to be highly proficient at assembly on flex. There also are many advantages to having your bare board supplier perform assembly that will lead to improved overall costs.

Product Module to complete Medical Product Box Builds

Additional industry trends have led customers to seek suppliers who can take on more.  Today, FCT provides bare boards, FPCBAs/assemblies, product module to complete box builds, performing as a contract manufacturer for a growing number of medical device customers.

For product module builds, our medical customers may want us to provide added value beyond SMT assembly to where we are attaching the assembly to a plastic or metal carrier, or inputting the assembly into a housing.  We  then ship as a product module that is input into the customer’s final product. 

Given we often are building the circuit assembly “the heart of the medical device”, we then are able to take it further; to where we perform complete product box builds for a growing number of medical device customers.

Press Releases

Flexible Circuit Technologies to exhibit at MDM WEST – Anaheim, CA February 7-9, 2023