At the beginning, PCB printed circuit boards were only hard boards. With the development of the circuit board industry and the increasing demand for products, flexible boards (FPCs) were born. With the application of two types of circuit boards, a new type of circuit board was born, which is the combination of soft and hard boards.
Soft hard composite board, as the name suggests, is produced by combining soft board and rigid board. Therefore, to produce soft hard composite board, PCB manufacturers need to have both soft board production equipment and hard board production equipment. Its production method is to seamlessly press the produced soft board and hard board according to relevant requirements. Compared with soft board and hard board, the production difficulty of soft hard composite board will be greater, the board making process will be more, and the production cycle will be longer. Therefore, correspondingly, the value of soft hard composite board will be higher than that of hard board and soft board. In terms of PCB copying cost, without considering the number of layers, the copying cost of soft hard composite board will also be higher. The cost of copying the other two types of PCBs is higher!
The combination of soft and hard boards combines the characteristics of both flexible and rigid circuit boards, addressing the issue of rigid board area and the weakness of flexible boards in soldering complex components. It can greatly improve product performance and is therefore widely used in high-end electronic devices such as smartphones, smart wearables, and industrial control equipment.