Flat Flexible Cable (FFC) refers to any variety of electrical cable that is both flat and flexible, with flat solid conductors. 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.
Sometimes the term FPC (flexible printed circuit) is even—somewhat inaccurately—used for any type of FFC; however, this is more accurately used to describe etched or printed circuits that incorporate components and are built onto a flexible material. FFCs are usually straight connections without any components.
FFC is a miniaturized form of ribbon cable, which is also flat and flexible. The cable usually consists of a flat, flexible plastic film base with multiple flat metallic conductors bonded to one surface. Often, each end of the cable is reinforced with a stiffener to make insertion easier or to provide strain relief. The stiffener makes the end of the cable slightly thicker.
Flexible flat cables are used instead of round cables for easy cable management, especially in high-flex applications. They usually take up less space than round cables, often offering better EMI/RFI suppression and eliminating wire-coupling issues. In addition, because the wires are protected individually and not wrapped many times over by different materials as round cables are, they are lighter in weight and offer greater flexibility.[1]
Now FFC Cables are widely used in printer connections between the head and the motherboard, plotters, scanners, copiers, stereos, LCD appliances, fax machines, DVD players, and signal transmission and plate board connections. In modern electrical equipment, FFC Cables can be found almost everywhere.