The flight heritage involving extended flex circuitry stretches back over 50 years when multiple designs for space, defense and communication applications were first developed. Pioneer Circuits is proud to have played an important role in developing this unique type of product.
In the late 1960’s, military aircraft with targeting optics in the form of a rotating turret required the development of flex circuitry which was defined “extended length” as it exceeded the normal size limitations of flex circuits at 36” length.
These flexes were very custom and required materials to be made using copper foils and dielectrics such as Teflon or Polyimide materials utilizing oversized lamination techniques. These early projects also incorporated splice techniques that enabled even longer designs to be manufactured allowing for lengths of over 80 inches. These incorporated simple solder lap joints to join two flexes together which placed a high level of mechanical stresses on the solder joints.
As equipment and material suppliers provided more options to create longer designs, applications for these products grew. Once the size of flex materials increased in length, lamination techniques were the next limitation to address. Large isostatic pressure vessels (autoclaves) were developed to meet this need and, today, Pioneer has two 8’ autoclaves as part of our extended length flex capability.
The next process to pose an obstacle was the photo exposure equipment available to define the circuitry. This led to experimentation in alternate vacuum frames and lighting techniques which allowed for larger formats. Pioneer developed a combination collimated light source with double-sided vacuum frame (30” X 120”) that could produce line widths and geometries to support modern circuitry (.004 line/.004 space).
In the early 80’s, there were new applications requiring the development of robotic arms to provide a host of capabilities allowing for in-orbit servicing of satellite and spaceborne equipment. Developed by SPAR Aerospace, an arm of the Canadian Space Consortium, the Canadarm was developed and deployed on the US Space Shuttles in 1981 by NASA to facilitate retrieval, repair and release of satellites and cargo vessels. A series of successful missions to service the Hubble Space Telescope led to the growing development of robotic servicing for a host of satellite and space equipment such as employed on the International Space Station (ISS).
Pioneer Circuits has been a leading contributor in the development of these robotic arm applications with our enhanced capabilities to support extended length flex circuits up to 34 ft. (11 meters) as found on past missions for Mars Phoenix Lander and Mars Curiosity Rover.
Pioneer is supporting current missions that will enhance the robotic capabilities on multiple platforms utilizing long flexes, with our process capabilities up to 24” X 85” panel sizes, and beyond with proprietary splicing technologies which result in low levels of mechanical stresses and life tested to show 100,000+ flexures. Pioneer is the premier supplier of advanced extended length flex cables for a variety of programs including the Mars Insight Lander, Mars2020 Rover, Restore-L Satellite Servicing, RSGS Satellite Servicing, and more in development. Please download our summary handout and contact us for your extended length flex project needs.
