The testing process of rigid flexible circuit board may be very challenging. This is because these circuits are very thin and have complex geometric shapes. Therefore, it is not surprising that some obstacles may be encountered during the test. In order to thoroughly test the circuit board, many PCB manufacturers choose flying pin test.
There are three kinds of rigid flexible circuit board test procedures
1. Fixture test: this process is mainly used in mass PCB production. It involves the use of wired and fixed devices. The advantage of this test is that the fixing device can accurately fix the plate in the appropriate position. It is also cheap and requires the least testing time. However, for rigid flexible circuit boards, the problem is to fix (align) the circuit board to the fixture. If the circuit has unplated mounting holes, the registration repeatability becomes difficult. In addition, if there is no mounting hole, fixture positioning cannot be carried out.
2. Manual testing: this process is famous for its simplicity. Digital voltmeter is used to test open circuit and short circuit of PCB network. However, many meters are designed to test only open circuits. The reason is that the design of the voltmeter complies with IPC and mil spec specifications, so it is difficult to test the isolated short circuit. Moreover, this is a time-consuming process, so there are many possibilities for mistakes.
3. Flying needle: Flying needle is the best program created for PCB testing so far. Compared with the other two testing processes, it has many advantages. First, it is not expensive to use. In addition, since alignment holes are not required for circuit alignment, fixtures are not required. Tiny pads can be tested without registration errors. It can test single-sided and double-sided rigid and flexible circuit boards. It can also test circuits with resistance cores. The only disadvantage of flying pin PCB testing is that it takes a lot of time.