Flat Cable Assemblies
Flexible flat cable, or FFC, refers to any variety of electrical cable that is both flat and flexible. A flexible flat cable is a type of flexible electronics. However, the term FFC usually refers to the extremely thin flat cable often found in high density electronic applications like laptops and cell phones. Where used to connect to flat panel displays, FFCs may also be referred to as flat panel cables (FPC). Sometimes the term FPC (flexible printed circuit) is even –somewhat inaccurately– used for any type of FFC. FFC is a miniaturized form of ribbon cable, which is also flat and flexible. The cable usually consists of a flat and flexible plastic film base, with multiple metallic conductors bonded to one surface. Often, each end the cable is reinforced with a stiffener to make insertion easier or to provide strain relief. The stiffener makes the cable slightly thicker.
