Using a Silhouette Cameo Plotter to cut a flexible circuitboard from various materials. The circuit base material is Kapton, a material that can withstand the high heat of soldering. The conductive circuit traces are cut from a sheet of copper tape and transferred manually onto the Kapton base. Finally a soldermask is cut from very thin Kapton tape and stuck on top of the circuit to insulate everything that does not need to be exposed for soldering to.
Materials:
Kapton sheet material (SYNFLEX PI Film-SV2, 0.175mm thick) >> http://www.synflex.com
Copper adhesive sheets >> http://www.techsoft.co.uk/products/knife-cutting/materials/cutronic-foil-pcbs.asp
Kapton tape >> http://www.segor.de/#Q%3DKaptonband50mm%2833m%29%26M%3D1
Tools:
Silhouette Cameo plotter >> http://www.modulor.de/en/Tools-Safety-Equipment/Stationary-Machines/Cutting-plotter/Cutting-plotter-SILHOUETTE-CAMEO.html
Links:
Photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/sets/72157648348822379/
Laser and Vinylcut Flex PCB >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=1132
Etched Flex PCB >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=240
Step-by-Step
1) Prepare file on computer
The flex circuit is made up of 4 main layers: (1)Base material, (2)conductive traces, (3)jumpers, (4)soldermask.
I followed this nice tutorial on how to prepare and export your file in Adobe Illustrator in order to import it and use the Silhouette Studio:
Illustrator Designs into Silhouette Studio >> http://hodgepodgepadge.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/illustrator-designs-into-silhouette-studio/
1) “Make sure all of your shapes are with NO FILL, NO STROKE – just paths!”
2) Save as: “AutoCAD Interchange File (dxf)”
3) Open in Silhouette Studio and re-size to dimensions you had in the original Illustrator file
2) Cut Base
3) Cut Copper

4) Transfer Copper and Insert Jumpers

3) Cut Copper

4) Transfer Copper and Insert Jumpers


4) Transfer Copper and Insert Jumpers
5) Cut and Apply Soldermask
6) Finishing
Cut/punch holes for sewing with a hole punch.
[…] for a laser cutter. It can be used for cutting stencils, vinyl, conductive fabric traces, or even flexible printed circuit boards. Just export your design files as VXF, import them into the free Silhouette Studio software, and […]