PCB/FPC Membrane Switches
Details of Flex & Rigid Membrane Switches
The circuit of membrane switches can be flex and rigid. It depends on the customer end application and also related to the cost budget and other considerations. For example, life, resistance, connection type on the mainboard, etc.
For the flex circuit membrane switches, there are two types. They are silver printed PET circuit and copper etched FPC circuit. Their difference and advantages & disadvantages listed bellow:
| Items | Silver Printed Circuit | Copper Etched FPC Circuit |
| Material | PET (Polyester) | Copper |
| Conductor | Printed silver | Copper |
| Contact Fingers | Silver and Carbon | Gold plated |
| Contact Buttons Pads | Silver | Gold plated |
| Life & Reliability | normal | good |
| Stability | normal | good |
| Resistance | low | Very low |
| Cost | low | high |
| Lead Time | 2-3 days | 7-10 days |
| Pitch | 0.5mm (not suggested), 1.0mm, 1.27mm, 2.54mm | 0.5mm, 1.0mm, 1.27mm, 2.54mm |
Usually if the membrane switches need assembled many LEDs, then we suggest to use FPC circuit, it can get more stable LED soldering quality. For the normal application the PET circuit is enough, which is more economical. In addition if the conductor pitch is 0.5mm, although we also can print it, but we still suggest to use FPC circuit. Because of that 0.5mm pitch is too small and it is easy to occur the short circuit problem.
For the Rigid circuit membrane switches, the circuit is rigid printed circuit board. The material of rigid PCB is usually FR4 and Copper. By this type of membrane switch, the connector usually is the SMD connector(sometimes also can be straight through connector). For some application which need very stiff capability, then use PCB circuit membrane switch.
Hotbar Lamination (Heatseal Lamination) of FFC and FPC Tail to PET/ITO/PCB/FPC Circuit Layer:
Sometimes the customer need use the separate FPC or FFC tail connected to the membrane switch PET or PCB or FPC circuit layer, and for the capacitive membrane switches also have such kind of application, then the hotbar lamination (or called pluse hot press lamination, or heatseal lamination) becomes necessary in these application fields. LUPHITOUCH is a professional manufacturer with such kind of lamination capability. We have such kind of assembly machine. We can hotseal the FFC/FPC tail to PET or FPC or PCB circuit of our manufactured membrane switches.
For more information on PCB/FPC Membrane Switches, contact us today.
If you want to know more about our PCB/FPC membrane switches services, please feel free to contact us.
