Early flexible printed circuit boards (hereinafter referred to as soft boards) were mainly used in the fields of small or thin electronic structures and connections between hard boards. In the late 1970s, they were gradually used in electronic information products such as computers, cameras, printers, car audio and hard disk drives. At present, the Japanese soft board application market is still dominated by consumer electronic products, while the United States has gradually shifted from previous military uses to consumer civilian uses.

Soft circuit boards are also called flexible circuit boards and flexible circuit boards. Referred to as soft boards or FPCs, compared to general hard resin circuit boards, flexible circuit boards have the advantages of high wiring density, light weight, thin thickness, less wiring space restrictions, and high flexibility.

Flexible circuit boards (Flexible Printed Circuit Board, abbreviated as FPCB) are electronic circuit boards manufactured based on flexible substrates.

Flexible substrates: Compared with traditional rigid circuit boards, flexible circuit boards use flexible substrates, which can work normally under bending and folding conditions and have better spatial adaptability.

Advantages: Flexible circuit boards have the advantages of light weight, small size, variable shape, easy bending, and high reliability, which greatly improves the design freedom of electronic equipment in terms of space, weight, performance and reliability.

The functions of flexible boards can be divided into four types, namely lead lines, printed circuits, connectors and multi-functional integrated systems. Their uses cover computers, computer peripheral auxiliary systems, consumer appliances and automobiles.

Characteristics of flexible circuit boards
1. Highly flexible, three-dimensional wiring, and shape changes according to space limitations.
2. High and low temperature resistance and flame resistance.
3. Foldable without affecting signal transmission function, can prevent interference.
4. Stable chemical changes, high stability and reliability.
5. Conducive to the design of related products, can reduce assembly time and errors, and extend the service life of related products.
6. Reduce the size of application products, significantly reduce weight, increase functions, and reduce costs.