A Study on Over-Molded Copper-Based Flexible Electronic Circuits

Over-molding has been proposed in recent years as an integrated functional flexible circuit board in a plastic part. This method uses the conventional process for film insert technology. Over-molding has attracted significant attention across many industries due to its potential to deliver different electrical functions in a variety of different part geometries, especially in automotive interiors and home appliances. While it has great application potential, manufacturing challenges continue throughout foil fabrication and injection molding. This raises challenges for designers and researchers responsible for maintaining the reliability of such electronic flexible circuits. Therefore, the purpose of this research paper is to improve some of the over-molding process parameters. On 0805 and 1206 over-molded zero-ohm resistors, electrical, mechanical, and failure characterization was performed. Those components were mounted in parallel, perpendicular, and 45° angled arrangements on two different polymer substrates, polyimide (PI) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) using lead-free solder, low-melt solder, and conductive adhesive paste. Moreover, as an over-molding material, polycarbonate (PC) with medium viscosity was used. The effect of using different mold shapes (corner mold, 2 mm flat mold, and 3 mm flat mold) and injection molding process parameters (injection speeds and melt temperature) was studied.