topic Re: Rigid Flex pcb in EAGLE Forum

Rigid Flex pcb

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 12:01:58 GMT

Hello everyone,

I would like to design a PCB with 3 parts ( 2 rigid parts and 1 flex part as showen in the picture one)

The following picture shows the stack up provided by the manufacturer. Is it possible to create this stackup in one board with Eagle ?

-flex stackup= ( top layer cooper, pylymide, solder mask),

-board stackup= ( 4 copper layers, solder mask, polymide, FR4)

i mean is it possible to have different stackup combinaisons in the same board ?

if someone has an idea on how to realize this circuit I will take it.

Thank you

Re: Rigid Flex pcb

jorge_garcia — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 22:09:41 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

I hope you're doing well. I know you have an open support ticket on this. In EAGLE there is no native way to handle this. So you have to have a really good relationship with your manufacturer and ask them how they want it called out on the gerbers.

You would use one of the unused layer to define the flex features and then export it as it's own gerber file. Talk to your manufacturer and they will give you guidance on how to produce the manufacturing data they need.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: Rigid Flex pcb

edwin.robledo — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 22:42:50 GMT

Hi abderrahmane.habet,

I have a Scheduled Call with you tomorrow, I will be able to have a screen sharing session that way I can explain how we can make this work with EAGLE.

Regards,

Edwin

Re: Rigid Flex pcb

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 16:23:39 GMT

Hi,

I have similar problem. My design should be F-R-F, (4 layers), 2 bottom layers are flex.
I have problem how place pads on 3rd layer (its top of flex) and I need to solder there some parts.
Do you have some video tutorial with this?

Best,
Patryk

Re: Rigid Flex pcb

jorge_garcia — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 20:58:34 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

This is an unusual case that EAGLE doesn't have a nice integrated solution for so we don't have any videos for this scenario. Handling it properly requires good communication with your manufacturer since every manufacturer will have different requirements.

Please let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: Rigid Flex pcb

edwin.robledo — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 21:06:50 GMT

Hi plamprechtVTWWT,

Your participation of the forum is greatly appreciated.

At this time don't have a video tutorial made about this topic. For now, on my call this morning, I recommended to use an additional layer, for this example layer 134 and called it _Polymide, to draw the Polymide material covering the entire board. We then drew some shapes on the TStop Layers to create openings on the Top Solder mask. Then used another layer 135 and called it _FlexSoldermask which was placed in the exact spot where we created the solder mask exposure.

After using all these layer, it was a matter of adjusting the CAM Processor to create a Gerber file for each layer individually. As you submit your Gerber files to the manufacturer, you need to explain to them exactly what each one does. It is imperative you have really good communication with the Board House.

I hope this helps.

Please 'accept as solution' if my reply resolves your issue.

Re: Rigid Flex pcb

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 15:30:47 GMT

It is clear and helpful what you wrote, thanks 😉

I have one more questions about pads on flex. I will create layers like _fstop, _fcream ect.
I design with layers 1,2,15,16 as signals.
With stackup where flex is placed on the bottom (lcopper layers are 15 & 16) it is needed to have pads on layer 15. I can't create in Eagle lib smd pad defined as layer 2 or 15.
Is maybe some solution to create this pad? To have defined connection from rigid pcb to pad on layer 15?

Only option what I think about is create copper field on layer 15 connected with wire and approve DRC error about airwire between pad on layer 15 and this one from lib (layer1).

Re: Rigid Flex pcb

edwin.robledo — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 15:37:17 GMT

Hi patryk.lamprecht,

The option you provide seems to be the most probable approach. I can't really think of anything better. Just keep track of what you are doing and keep really good communication with the board house. Let them know exactly how you plan to treat this and inform them well about your layer stack up when your ready to summit.

Thanks for participation on the EAGLE forum. I'm certain this will help many of our users.

Have a GREAT Day!!

Re: Rigid Flex pcb

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 09:19:17 GMT

Hello

I need to design PCB with following specification.I good enough in designing multi layer in Eagle Cad. I need help for following one. Please do reply asap.

6 Layer Rigid + 2 layer Flex

board thickness 1.2mm ,Copper 1oz

Thanks and Regards,
Devadharshini Senthil