Solution to Make Flexible PCB LED Strip Design Into Reality

LED strips are usually aluminum PCB-based. However, there is another LED strip option, flexible PCB LED strips. Flexible PCB LED strips provide the best complexity to LED lighting products. PCBONLINE, the one-stop flexible PCB LED strip manufacturer, provides you with the ultimate solution to making flexible PCB LED strip design into reality.

Part 1: Introduction to Flexible PCB LED Strip

A flexible PCB LED strip is an LED light strip based on a flexible circuit board. To be more precise, flexible PCB LED strips are chip-on-board (COB) LED flexible PCB assemblies. The LEDs are surface-mounted on flexible PCBs, and the whole assembly is bendable.

So we can also say that a flexible PCB LED strip is a flexible PCB assembly. The LED chips are the electronic components mounted on the circuit board.

Applications of flexible PCB LED strips: flexible PCB LED strips can be used for wearable lighting products, such as head-mounted miner's lamps and riding safety lamp products.

Part 2: The Base of the Flexible PCB LED Strip: Flexible PCB

A flexible PCB or FPC is a bendable circuit board that can be single-sided, double-sided, single-layer, dual-layer, or multilayer.

Structure of a flexible PCB: an FPC is made up of a polyimide (PI) substrate layer, two rolled copper foil on the two sides, and two external PI layers to insulate and protect the copper. Between the PI substrate and copper foil, there can be an adhesive layer. The flexible PCB without adhesive has the color of PI, and the flexible PCB with adhesive has a darker color.

If a flexible PCB has two or more layers, it is manufactured by laminating the alternating layers of copper, PI, (and adhesive) on the substrate layer.

The FPC has very thin substrate materials, and the rolled copper foil greatly increases the circuit's ductility and repeatable bending ability. Flexible PCBs reduce much of the space and match the non-planar assembly applications.

Part 3: Flexible PCB LED Strip Assembly: How LEDs are Assembled on FPC

LEDs (light-emitting diodes), or LED chips, are semiconductor parts having a P-N junction that allows current to flow in only one direction and transforms electric energy into light.

There are three methods to mount LED chips on PCBs:

• Wiring bonding - using a gold wire to connect the LED chip pin and the PCB.
• Tape automated bonding - using a copper foil to connect the LED chip pin's bump and the PCB.
• Flip-chip - the LED chip pin's bump and the bump of the PCB pad are directly connected without any wire.

Part 4: How to Make Your Flexible PCB LED Strip Design Into Reality

Whether you are going to make an LED lighting product on your brand or make a system that uses flexible PCB LED strips, you can have flexible PCB LED strips manufactured in the following steps.

Step 1. Flexible PCB LED Strip Design

Appropriately make a flexible PCB design according to the product application requirements. If you have concerns about the design, contact the PCBONLINE team, and we will take part in co-developing with you in the R&D stage for free. We also have off-the-shelf solutions that are open-source, and we can offer them to you for free.

Our engineers can design many functions on the flexible PCB, such as induction color change, lighting color change, switching frequency, etc.

Step 2. Flexible PCB Manufacturing

PCBONLINE provides flexible PCB manufacturing for you from prototyping to bulky production, including single-sided FPC, double-sided FPC, 1 to 10 layer flexible PCBs, thick-copper flexible PCBs, HDI flexible PCBs, carbon-ink flexible PCBs, clear flexible PCBs.

Step 3. Electronic Components Sourcing

In the meantime, PCBONLINE sources LED chips and other electronic components on the bill of materials from the component factories by co-procurement with other large EMS.

Step 4. Flexible PCB Assembly

PCBONLINE assembles flexible PCB LED strips according to your requirements. SMT, wiring bonding, tape automated bonding, and flip-chip bonding are available from PCBONLINE.

Step 5. Flexible PCB LED Strip Assembly Later Stage

This step includes IC programming, functional testing, thermal aging, end-product assembly, and shipping. All follow your requirements.

Part 5: Flexible PCB LED Strip One-Stop Manufacturing Solution Provider - PCBONLINE

From the above, you can see that PCBONLINE provides flexible PCB LED strip one-stop solutions, including product design, flexible PCB manufacturing, LED and other parts sourcing, and flexible PCB LED strip one-stop assembly.

PCBONLINE, founded in 1999, has two large advanced PCB manufacturing bases and one PCB assembly factory. The one-stop advanced PCB manufacturer has these advantages in custom flexible PCB LED strip manufacturing:

Please feel free to send your Gerber, BOM, and requirements to PCBONLINE by email at info@pcbonline.com if you have any flexible PCB LED strip needs.

Conclusion

Flexible PCB LED strips are LED strips based on flexible circuit boards rather than aluminum PCBs. From the perspective of the manufacturing side, flexible PCB LED strips are flexible PCB assemblies. For flexible PCB manufacturing, flexible PCB assembly, and flexible PCB LED strips, please do not miss the 23-year-old source factory PCBONLINE.