Rigid-flex circuit board

A non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium having recorded thereon a computer program having instructions which, when the computer program is executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a computer-implemented method for designing a rigid-flex circuit board having a set of rigid zones and one or more flexible zones, each flexible zone connecting a respective subset of rigid zones, the rigid-flex circuit board having a folded state and a flattened state, the method comprising:

• obtaining a 3D layout of the set of rigid zones, the 3D layout representing the set of rigid zones of the rigid-flex circuit board in the folded state;
• defining, for each flexible zone, a respective set of edge segments of the respective subset of rigid zones connected by the flexible zone;
• computing a 2D layout of the set of rigid zones, based on the 3D layout and on the respective set of edge segments defined for each flexible zone, the 2D layout representing the set of rigid zones of the rigid-flex circuit board in the flattened state;
• and
• defining, for each flexible zone, a respective plane portion representing the flexible zone in the flattened state, based on the 2D layout.

A computer system comprising:

• a processor coupled to a memory, the memory having recorded thereon a computer program having instructions which, when the computer program is executed by the processor, cause the processor to design a rigid-flex circuit board having a set of rigid zones and one or more flexible zones, each flexible zone connecting a respective subset of rigid zones, the rigid-flex circuit board having a folded state and a flattened state, by the processor being configured to:
• obtain a 3D layout of the set of rigid zones, the 3D layout representing the set of rigid zones of the rigid-flex circuit board in the folded state;
• define, for each flexible zone, a respective set of edge segments of the respective subset of rigid zones connected by the flexible zone;
• compute a 2D layout of the set of rigid zones, based on the 3D layout and on the respective set of edge segments defined for each flexible zone, the 2D layout representing the set of rigid zones of the rigid-flex circuit board in the flattened state;
• and
• define, for each flexible zone, a respective plane portion representing the flexible zone in the flattened state, based on the 2D layout.