Flex printed circuits board can provide several obvious advantages over conventional ribbon cables in certain applications. For example, a flex circuit can span between a board and a connector on a bulkhead several inches away at a right angle in the same plane as the board. That’s not feasible with a ribbon cable.

A flex circuit can be formed in complex shapes in three dimensions with branches to multiple connectors, which would be impossible to achieve with a ribbon cable. Moreover, flex circuits can be interfaced with rigid boards without the relatively tall and bulky connectors flat cables require, or in the case of rigid-flex construction, they can be integral with the boards and eliminate external connectors altogether. Furthermore, the conductor density of flex circuits can far exceed that of ribbon cables.

There are some subtle advantages of flex circuits versus conventional ribbon cables beyond the many clear distinctions. One of the materials commonly used for flex circuits, Kapton, has extremely low outgassing in ultra-high-vacuum environments, such as space. Though Kapton-insulated ribbon cables are available, they have a limited number of conductors and cannot be routed at angles in tight confines.

Ribbon cables insulated with Teflon and other plastic materials outgas fluorine or reactive compounds when subjected to high vacuums, which can attack electronics in closed containers if care is not taken to completely vent the gases.