Fine lined? Multilayered? Highly dense with IC packages on top? Flex offers an array of choices with a growing number of benefits. For managing high temperatures successfully, reducing weight and space and saving on assembly costs, flex can be the answer you've been searching for. Learn about new manufacturing technologies, test strategies and applications at the IPC International Conference on Flexible Circuits being held June 12-13, 2007 in Minneapolis, MN.

Flex circuits are now being used in high volume consumer applications and high reliability medical solutions. No other conference provides so much timely information on the amazing potential of flex.

Registration Information
Please register by June 4, 2007, to secure your seat at this event. Complete the registration form and fax or mail to IPC. The technical conference and tabletop displays will be held on June 13, 2007. Please see the conference agenda for specific times. For more information, or if the registration deadline has passed, contact an IPC registration representative at +1 847-597-2861 or send an e-mail to registration@ipc.org.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellations received before June 8, 2007 will be refunded in full. Refunds will not be issued after the start of the program. Individuals failing to cancel will be billed for the registration fee. If the events are cancelled, participants will receive a full refund. If you are unable to attend, you may send a co-worker in your place.

Location and Hotel Accommodation

The educational courses and technical conference will take place at the Holiday Inn Bloomington Airport I-35W, 1201 W 94th Street, Bloomington, MN. To reserve your room, contact the hotel directly at +1 952-884-8211 and ask for the IPC conference rate of $79 (single/double) per night. Rate is subject to change after May 28, 2007.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Suppliers, manufacturers, and users of flexible circuits will be in attendance at this conference. Your company can showcase its services and products as a tabletop exhibitor or take advantage of one of the many sponsorship opportunities available for this conference.

View the list of available sponsorship opportunities here(.pdf) or contact Michelle Michelotti at +1 847-597-2822 or via e-mail at MichelleMichelotti@ipc.org.

Media Sponsors

Tabletop Exhibits

At this year's conference, we expect over 100 attendees to visit the tabletop display area during the conference breaks and lunches on May 9, 2007. For pricing information and tabletop application here(.pdf).

Flexible circuits have experienced a long history for furnishing practical interconnect solutions for wide range of electronic products. The versatile flexible circuit has proved practical for high volume consumer products such as cameras and cellular phones, as well as sophisticated and challenging aeronautic and medical electronic applications.

This workshop will review a number of current and future applications, general market trends for flexible circuits, study the various material options, detail alternative fabrication methodologies, as well as the established design guidelines for both flexible and rigid-flex circuits as defined in IPC-2223 and other related IPC documents. Documentation and assembly process requirements for lead free SMT will also be defined with emphasis on controlling cost, maximizing assembly process efficiency and ensuring end product reliability.

What You Will Learn

• Flexible circuit applications and market
  • Commercial/Consumer
  • Industrial/Automotive
  • Medical/Aerospace
• Substrate material selection and standards
  • Specifying base material for flex-circuits
  • Flex-circuit metallization technologies
  • Applicable standards for flexible base materials
• Fabrication methodology for flex circuits
  • Panel process, subtractive, semi-additive
  • Reel-to-reel process, subtractive, semi-additive
  • Rigid-flex process, sequential lamination
• Design guidelines for flexible circuits
  • SMT Land pattern and via hole planning
  • Maximizing circuit routing densities
  • Cover-layer and reinforcement techniques
• Documentation for flex-circuit fabrication
  • Dimensioning and tolerances for flexible circuits
  • Flex-circuit panel layout guidelines
  • Requirements for automated assembly
• SMT assembly process requirements
  • Planning for automated handling of flexible circuits
  • Lead free solder process development
  • SMT assembly quality assessment

About the Instructor

Vern Solberg is an independent consultant specializing in surface mount and microelectronic design and assembly. Formerly with Tessera, the company that developed the µBGA, Solberg holds several patents for IC packaging innovations (including the folded-flex 3D package technology). He has served the industry for more than 35 years in areas related to design and manufacturing for both commercial and aerospace electronic products and is the author of Design Guidelines for Surface Mount and Fine-Pitch Technology, published by McGraw-Hill. He is the chairman of a task group developing IPC-7094, Design and Assembly Process Implementation for Flip-Chip and Chip Size Packaging, is on the advisory board and a columnist for SMT Magazine, as well as actively participating in several other industry organizations.

With the rapid growth of the "Electronics Age", FPC (Flexible Printed Circuits) has become the critical interconnect device in use today. From cell phones to digital cameras, automotive electronics, PDAs, and iPODs, FPCs have gained acceptance as a highly reliable and versatile means of enabling electronic interconnections. While materials and packaging are discussed elsewhere, this workshop will focus on processing flexible printed circuits. Primarily the subject matter will present ways to desmear flex (both adhesiveless and adhesive) with both plasma and permanganate. In addition, metallization of FPCs and sigificant issues will be presented and analyzed. Defects, such as blistering and voiding, will be discussed and solutions suggested to improve plating quality.

The workshop will conclude with a presentation on flexible soldermask technology (cover coat) and the use of lead free surface finishes.

What You Will Learn

• Overview of Desmear of Flexible Materials
  • Alkaline Permanganate
  • Plasma
• Metalization of Flexible Substrates
  • Overview of electroless copper
  • Direct metalization for flex
  • Critical success factors
  • Reel to reel and continuous processing
• Electroplating for Flex
  • Surface prep
  • Plating processes
• Solderable Finishes

Who Should Attend

Anyone involved in the design, fabrication and assembly of FPCs will benefit. In addition, those involved in specifying or purchasing these types of circuits will gain knowledge, as well.

About the Instructors

Michael Carano is vice president of technical operations for Electrochemicals, Inc. He is a member of, and a teacher for, the American Electroplaters and Surface Finishers Society. He has authored numerous articles in the areas of copper plating, tin plating, PCB technologies, and analytical control of electroplating baths. He is also on the IPC Board of Directors.

Flexible Circuitry, the original printed circuit, continues fast-paced advances as products shrink and performance expands. Flex is a top enabling technology for a wide range of electronics, especially portable consumer products. Flex delivers the highest interconnect density system in an extremely thin, lightweight, pliable and durable format. Flex is a unique 3D circuit that brings reliable connections to moving assemblies. Cell phones, cameras, displays, personal-players, PDAs, MP3s (including iPod), laptops, disk drives, and hundreds of large and small products use flex.
Mature applications, like automotive and military, are also growing as more powerful electronics is adopted. Materials uniqueness is an important reason for the excellent cost/performance value of flex and this area will be covered in detail. Flex is halogen-free and easily handles high temperature lead-free solders. All flex materials, including Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP), will be described and compared. Both standard and newer processes are covered, including laser machining and fluid jetting (ink jet). We'll also discuss RFID products and the emerging area of "flexible electronics" (organic/plastic electronics).

Discussion will include special properties and unique characteristics of flex dielectrics, metal conductors, polymer inks. We'll compare flex to rigid PCBs and point out where each is best suited. You already use flex, so join us to learn more about this powerful and enabling technology.

What You Will Learn

• The fundamentals of flexible circuitry.
• Advantages and limitations.
• Flex materials: base films, conductors, finishes, masks, coverlayers, and backers.
• Adhesiveless vs. laminates.
• Think in 3-dimensional.
• Dynamic vs. flex to install.
• Assembly: SMT, COB, TAB and Flip Chip
• The total cost picture
• Newer areas; RFID tags and printed (organic/plastic) electronics

Who Should Attend

Technical and marketing managers, designers, material suppliers, circuit fabricators, test engineers and assembly personnel in the general printed circuit field. IC fabricators, electronic package designers and technologists will also benefit.

About the Instructor

Dr. Ken Gilleo holds a Ph.D. in chemistry earned under a full NASA scholarship at UCONN. He has developed new products for 30 years and is an inventor in electronics, circuitry, materials and packaging with 30 U.S. patents. His products have received three R&D 100 Awards. Dr. Gilleo has authored over 500 papers, presentations and workshops. His 7th and 8th books: MEMS/MOEMS Packaging and Industrial Forensics will be published in 2005. He gained flex experience while heading R&D at Sheldahl, Poly-Flex Circuits, and Tessera. Ken is CEO of ET-Trends LLC, a consulting, electronic package design, and IP firm dedicated to Emerging Technologies . He is an active member of IEEE and is vice president of technical programs for the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA).

Flexible circuitry remains the most versatile and valuable interconnection system in electronics today. Flex - the "hidden" enabler - makes tens of thousands of products possible. Flex marries motion & electronics in disk drives, laptops, cameras, printers, PDAs, phones, new plastic displays, and a myriad of other products that combine motion with electronics, or need extreme miniaturization. But flex is also used for low cost and thinness, valuable for keyboards, displays, and RFID tags. You're surrounded with products enabled by flex inside.

Flex attributes of high density, remarkable durability, designed flexibility, extreme thinness, and exceptional thermal resistance make it ideal for circuits as well as packaging that will be covered thoroughly. Flex-Based Packages offer efficient miniaturization, lightness and durability while providing 3D configurability for stacked multi-chip modules. Flex packages include CSPs, WLCSPs, Chip-on-Flex, TAB, Tape Carrier Packages, microBGAs, TapeBGAs, FlexBGAs and folded arrays. Find out why flex, the original chip carrier, has the highest performance.

But flex is a paradox! Products range from expensive complex military to the world's lowest cost PCBs using polymers instead of copper. We'll compare traditional copper-flex to efficient Polymer Thick Film (PTF) now used to make value-maximized keyboards, calculators, medical sensors, and RFID tags. Solderless assemblies are included.

Our workshop will examine dozens of fascinating flex examples (and samples) - from inner (implantable) to outer (aerospace), along with biggest (ECHO), longest (Space Station), farthest (Mars Rover), and emerging flexible electronics.

What You Will Learn

• Overview of flex materials & processes
• Dynamic flex for "motion electronics"
• Flex in portable products.
• Flex packages; TAB, Flex-BGAs Flip Chip-on-Flex, CSPs and 3D Multi-chip.
• High performance Flex; TBGAs, FlexBGAs, TAB, integrated TAB.
• Polymer Thick Film (PTF) applications
• RFID Tag choices; metal vs. PTF
• "Flexible Electronics"; printed transistors

Who Should Attend

Technical and marketing managers, designers, circuit fabricators, test engineers and assembly personnel in the general printed circuit field should attend. IC fabricators, equipment suppliers, electronic package designers, material scientists and most technologists will benefit.

About the Instructor

Dr. Ken Gilleo holds a Ph.D. in chemistry earned under a full NASA scholarship at UCONN. He has developed new products for 30 years and is an inventor in electronics, circuitry, materials and packaging with 30 U.S. patents. His products have received three R&D 100 Awards. Dr. Gilleo has authored over 500 papers, presentations and workshops. His 7th and 8th books: MEMS/MOEMS Packaging and Industrial Forensics will be published in 2005. He gained flex experience while heading R&D at Sheldahl, Poly-Flex Circuits, and Tessera. Ken is CEO of ET-Trends LLC, a consulting, electronic package design, and IP firm dedicated to Emerging Technologies . He is an active member of IEEE and is vice president of technical programs for the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA).

Looking for Savings?

• Early Registration - Register by May 25, 2007, and save an additional 10% off of the prices shown below.
• Group Discount - Register three individuals from your company at the same time and receive the fourth
  registration FREE. * Note: The discount will apply to the lowest cost registration.