1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a flexible printed circuit board (PCB), a method of fabricating the flexible PCB, and a display device having the flexible PCB, and more particularly, to a flexible PCB which can contribute to the reduction of damage to wiring layers and wiring defects regardless of a decrease in the width of wiring layers and can thus contribute to the miniaturization of various products, a method of fabricating the flexible PCB, and a display device having the flexible PCB.
2. Description of the Related Art
The demand for the miniaturization of various products equipped with display devices, such as, for example, mobile phones, portable navigation devices or digital cameras, has steadily grown. Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are deemed one of the most suitable display devices for miniaturizing such various products.
In general, display devices may include a display panel displaying an image, a backlight assembly providing light to the display panel and a printed circuit board (PCB) equipped with a controller for generating various electric signals necessary for driving the display panel.
In the meantime, it may be necessary to reduce the size of flexible PCBs to keep up with the trend of miniaturization of display device modules. However, to reduce the size of flexible PCBs, the pitch between wiring layers may need to be minimized.
As the pitch between wiring layers of a flexible PCB decreases, the thickness of wiring layers may also decrease. Thus, as a result, bending cracks are highly likely to be generated during the assembly of a display device. To address the above bending crack difficulties, an alloy of gold or silver obtained by substitution plating may be used. In this case, however, as the thickness of wiring layers and the pitch between wiring layers decrease, wiring layers become more likely to be damaged by a plating solution.
Therefore, it may be necessary to develop a method of minimizing the thickness of wiring layers and the pitch between wiring layers while preventing the occurrence of bending cracks and damage by a plating solution.