Oki Electric Cable Co., Ltd. (President: Masasuke Kishi, Head Office: Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken, hereafter referred to as Oki Electric Cable) has recently developed the "Ultrathin Flexible Multilayer FPC", featuring enhanced flexibility using thinner multilayer FPC (multilayer flexible printed circuits) (*1). This product will commence sales today.

In recent years, multilayer FPC that combine high-density routability with lightweight and flexibility have become increasingly popular for the internal wiring of "mobile devices (*2)", where stringent weight and space restrictions apply as they continue to become lighter and more compact. Digital electronic equipment are currently making a transition from "mobile devices" to "wearable terminals (*3)" that are attached closer to the body; and there is an increasing demand for higher density wiring to achieve lighter, smaller and higher-performance devices. However, increasing the density of conventional multilayer FPC results in thicker layers, reducing the flexibility that is an intrinsic advantage of multilayer FPC.

To overcome this challenge, Oki Electric Cable has developed the "Ultrathin Flexible Multilayer FPC" featuring a 4-layer structure with 40% less thickness (in-house comparison), accomplished using thinner insulating and adhesive layers and utilizing the proprietary layering technology. This FPC enables bent wiring in confined spaces, which was difficult to achieve using conventional multilayer FPC. It is highly reliable in terms of flexibility, having demonstrated a bending resistance 10 times greater than conventional products in a R1.0mm repeated bending test.

The "Ultrathin Flexible Multilayer FPC" enables flexible wiring in confined spaces which was previously difficult to achieve, thereby contributing to meeting the demands for lighter, smaller and higher-performance digital electronic devices. This product can be used for applications in the fields related to mobile devices, as well as wearable terminals used in medical, nursing, robots, sport, healthcare and other fields.

Oki Electric Cable will continue to actively develop new products to accommodate the constantly diversifying customer needs.

Comparison with conventional products

Reliability of the "Ultrathin Flexible Multilayer FPC"

Item	Content	Conditions	Properties
1. Connection reliability	Temperature cycle	-65° C⇔125°C 1,000 cycles	No errors
2. Insulation between layers	Constant temperature/humidity bias	85°C85% 1,000H	? 100 MΩ
3. Bending resistance	Mandrel test	R1.0mm 180° bending	? 300 times

Glossary of terms

• *1:Multilayer FPC (Multilayer flexible printed circuits)

  FPC (flexible printed circuits) with three or more conductor layers. It can be bent freely to suit various applications, but its bendability will decrease as the number of layers gets larger.

• *2:Mobile devices

  Compact and lightweight portable information terminals such as portable laptops, smartphones and tablets.

• *3:Wearable terminals

  Information terminals that can be worn and carried around by the user (such as a head-mounted display, wrist watch type biological information terminal, etc.). Also referred to as wearable devices.

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