FFC - Flat Flexible Cable

ZIF - Zero Insertion Force FFC

Flex to install (Use A) - An FFC capable of withstanding flexing during installation

Dynamic (Use B) - An FFC capable of withstanding continuous flexing for the number of cycles specified on the master drawing

Conductor (or sometimes called trace or track) - A flat copper wire that carries electrical current from one point to another

Pitch (sometimes called trace spacing) - Refers to the spacing from the center of one conductor to the center of the next conductor

Margin - The dimension from the center of last conductor on the cable to the outside dielectric or sometimes from the edge of the last conductor to the outside dielectric

Exposed Conductor - The area of FFC where there is no insulation covering one side or both sides of the copper conductors. Typically used to mate with connectors or solder to surface mount pads on PCB.

Stiffener - A selectively placed reinforcing layer usually rigid material or dielectric film material to add mechanical strength where required (i.e to support components or connectors)

PSA - Pressure sensitive adhesive, often used to attach stiffeners to FFC’s

Thermal Adhesive - A type of adhesive that requires temperature and pressure in a lamination press, often used to attach stiffeners to FFC’s

Cu - Copper, referring to the base copper of an FFC

Sn - Tin, referring to tin plating as a solderable surface finish on bare copper

Ni - Nickel, referring to an electroplated or electroless deposit usually be beneath a layer of plated gold

Au - Gold, referring to electroplated or electroless gold usually over nickel

Ag - Silver, often used as a silver conductive polymer ink for creating EMI shields

EMI - Electro-magnetic interference

EMC - Electro-magnetic compliance

Pb Free - Lead free, usually referring to the solder or solder paste for attaching components

SMT - Surface mount technology, referring to components that are placed on pads coated with solder paste and subsequently passed through a reflow oven to fuse the solder and create a permanent electrical contact between FPC and component

RFI - Radio Frequency Interference – often corrected with a method of EMI shielding

Radius - The minimum required dimension recommended to properly fold/crease or prepare cable for flex cycling

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