Flexible Printed Circuit Board in Personal Computer Motherboards

My intended major is computer engineering so I decided to review an article on

motherboards. The motherboard is probably the most important part of a computer. Without it,
the computer will not run. W.C. Leong, M.Z. Abdullah and C.Y. Khor wrote an article in 2011 on
flexible printed circuit boards. Also shortened to FPCBs, these circuit boards are used as an
alternate option to rigid printed circuit boards. Along with it being very flexible and lightweight,
it also reduces size and is low in cost installation for motherboards. FPCBs permit higher
deflection in operations than PCBs do. This is a long term problem for them.
There was some experimentation with a FPCB that was ready for use. Its thickness was
0.1 mm and single-sided. It was made of a polyimide and copper layers. A test was conducted
on it for the properties of its plastic. The FPCBs elasticity in a linear region was 5.42 GPa and
its strength was about 80 MPa. A test vehicle was made by removing old parts from a
motherboard and replacing it with the FPCB. This vehicle was then put in a wind tunnel. This
was to measure the deflection of the FPCB.
There was numerical analysis done after the initial experiment. The air flow problem was
modeled and solved by a program called FLUENT. The deformation of the FPCB was modeled
and solved by another program called ABAQUS. To transfer those quantities from one place to
the other, a program called MpCCI was used. The program ABAQUS made a model of the
motherboard with the FPCB attached to it. The program FLUENT thought of the flow as 3D,
incompressible, and unsteady. How reliable this simulation was determined by a comparison of
predictions and actual measurements from the experiment.

There are two different forces that determined the flow condition. Those forces were
weight-induced force and flow-induced force. The weight force is because of the motherboards
weight. The flow force was because of the air flow. Those forces heavily affect the deflection of
motherboards. The deflection predictions were compared with measurements from the
experiment. High velocity resulted in a positive value of deflection. Flow velocity has an effect
on the result of this experiment as well. The max induced stress goes up with the flow velocity.
But, as that increases, the motherboard deflects to negative. Adding to the effects, there are also
fastening options. Fastening options are where the motherboard is connected and held together.
In the end, the numbers for deflection and stress ranged from 0.02 to 1.04 mm and 1.32 to 14.2
MPa. This meant there needed to be more testing do on the FPCB before it can be used as a legit
replacement for motherboards.
To conclude, FPCBs were essentially made to be alternates to rigid PCBs. Experiments
have been conducted to test the strength of the FPCB. The results varied because of several
different effects. To name some, there was weight-induced force, flow-induced force, flow
velocity, and fastening options. Not all the forces have a negative impact. For the FPCB to be
used, however, it needs to become stronger. I actually liked this article to an extent. The article
certainly didnt lack any detail. It not only explained how and what the experiment was going to
do but it went into full depth with the analysis. Results and different factors were thoroughly
explained as well. The article isnt too old which means that those advancements should be
further along now. I think this article was the right choice.

(Leong, Abdullah, & Khor, April 2012)

http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/science/article/pii/S0026271411004963
References
Leong, W. C., Abdullah, M. Z., & Khor, C. Y. (April 2012). Application of flexible printed circuit
board (FPCB) in personal computer motherboards: Focusing on mechanical performance.
Microelectronics Reliability, 52(4), 744-756. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0026271411004963