Amber polyimide flexible heater with serpentine copper traces curved over an aluminum mandrel

Polyimide film heaters for thin, low-lag, precisely-placed heat.

Illuminious is a U.S. NPI engineering company. Polyimide heaters are etched-foil circuits laminated in thin polyimide film, which suits thin, low-mass installations that need heat placed precisely and brought up with little lag. Engineered in San Francisco. Prototype builds, DFM and mass production in our own factory in Shenzhen. Upload your files, get a free engineering review, and pay only the official quote that review publishes.

A polyimide heater is an etched copper circuit laminated between thin polyimide films. It is barely thicker than tape and bends to tight radii. Heat goes exactly where the trace runs, so the trace layout, not the wattage, decides whether the design works.

Two ways in: configure it online and a specialist prepares your official quote within 24 hours on business days, or send the job to an engineer. Engineering review is free either way and comes before you pay.

Payment: Official price after free review
Review target: Within 24 hours on business days after you submit

Talk to an engineer Get an official quote in 24 hours

No CAD yet? Our design team can take it from a sketch or a spec.

The configurator opens with this configuration preselected. An engineer reviews every order. Account required; engineering review is free and comes before payment.

Polyimide or silicone: which heater construction fits your installation?

Thin, low-mass assemblies where a thick heater would not fit
Short warm-up and low thermal lag
Small, precisely-located heated zones
Battery, optics, sensor, and instrument warming

Typical orders: Prototype quantities through production batches. Every heater is reviewed before production regardless of quantity.
Accepted files: Gerber, DXF, or DWG for a heater you have already designed, or a structured requirements document (PDF, XLS/XLSX) describing the thermal problem. Reference photographs and mechanical drawings upload alongside.
Payment basis: Official price after free review
Preparation workbook: Download the intake workbook

The choices that decide the part.

Each of these is a real configuration decision with a cost and a consequence, not a feature list. Where one of them constrains another, engineering review is the step that resolves it.

Etched copper circuit

The heating element is a photo-etched copper trace, so the circuit can be routed to put heat exactly where the thermal model wants it and keep it away from where it would do harm.

Thin and conformal

Polyimide construction is very thin and flexible, so it bonds to curved surfaces and adds almost no thermal mass — which is why it heats and cools with little lag.

Integration

Pressure-sensitive adhesive backing, lead wires up to 5000 mm, and bare, connectorized, or solder-pad termination are all declared options.

Sensing

An integrated NTC thermistor or thermostat can be laminated into the heater, which is usually better than mounting one nearby and hoping it reads the same temperature.

What the configurator accepts, and where review takes over.

Polyimide heaters capability bounds
Parameter	Supported range
Construction	Polyimide film with an etched copper heating circuit.
Size and quantity	5–1200 mm width and height, 1–10,000 heaters per line. Larger formats are quoted through review.
Electrical design basis	Total power, target resistance, or target temperature — pick the one you actually know, and the design is worked from it.
Electrical range	0.1–600 V operating voltage with the target value entered against your chosen basis.
Duty	Intermittent, cycled, or continuous. Continuous operation routes to engineering review.
Integration	Pressure-sensitive adhesive backing, 0–5000 mm lead wire, and bare/tinned leads, a connector, or solder pads. Connectors route to review.
Sensing and control	None, NTC thermistor, thermostat, or a custom sensor. Custom sensors route to review.
Resistance tolerance	Standard, ±5%, or ±3%. The tightest band routes to review. Resistance testing is part of the reviewed scope; the sampling plan is confirmed in review.
End-use context	General equipment, vehicle/battery, medical, aerospace, or continuous unattended operation. The context is a priced and reviewed input, not a disclaimer.
Watt density	Determined in review from your heated area, heat sinking, ambient conditions, and duty. This is a safety-relevant figure and is never assumed.

The bounds above are what the configurator accepts. What the heater can safely dissipate on your specific assembly is an engineering answer that comes from the thermal environment you describe — which is why that field is required before you request review.

Boundaries

Watt density limits depend on the substrate, the heat sinking, and the airflow behind the heater, so they are set in review, never on a web page
Polyimide has a lower upper temperature limit than silicone; the crossover point is confirmed for your application
Continuous unattended and safety-related applications are declared end-use contexts and are reviewed as such

How is a polyimide heater price built?

Quotation by a specialist. Quotation within 24 hours on business days. A specialist prices your exact Flex Heater scope from your files and specifications. You submit your request online, and the quotation arrives in your account and by email. Review is free. Nothing is charged until you accept a quotation.

Heated area, outline complexity, and quantity
Circuit design work implied by the declared design basis
Engineering and setup, which are itemized separately from material
Die-cutting, adhesive backing, lead wires, and termination style
Integrated sensors, resistance tolerance, testing, and requested lead time

What engineering reviews

Customer approvals may include

The proposed circuit layout, watt density, and any change to the heated area
Sensor, thermostat, or lead-termination changes proposed in review
Any itemized price or lead-time revision

Watt density across the heated area against the stated heat sinking and airflow
Whether polyimide is the right substrate for the peak temperature
Trace routing, uniformity, and hot-spot risk at corners and lead attachment
Voltage, resistance, and power consistency against the declared basis
Sensor placement and whether it will read the temperature that matters
Adhesive suitability for the mounting surface and its service temperature

Free review first. Keep every later decision explicit.

The thermal environment field is required before you request review, for a reason: a heater priced without knowing what it is bonded to is a number, not a design. Describe the installation, and review works from it.

Create your account
Verify your email before the persistent quote workspace opens. Every file, estimate, message, and payment stays attached to that account.
Configure and upload
Provide service-specific inputs and place technical files in private project storage. Saved drafts remain available across sessions.
Free engineering review
Submit the configured cart at no charge. A reviewer checks the exact file and specification revision, then prices it or opens a documented question or correction request.
Official quote
Review publishes an itemized quote with lead time and a validity window. That is the binding figure; anything shown earlier was a preliminary estimate.
Accept and pay
Accepting opens payment rather than charging you. Lead time is counted from settled payment, and any later itemized revision needs your approval first.
Produce and deliver
After all commercial, technical, and customer gates are complete, the project moves through the service-specific production or design milestones.

Commitments the order system actually enforces.

Official quote prepared by a specialist, then engineering review

A specialist prepares your official quote within 24 hours on business days, pricing the declared area, integration, and testing. An engineer works the thermal problem (watt density, hot spots, sensor placement) and confirms or revises it before you are asked for an official price.

Requirements stay private

Drawings, requirement documents, and revisions live in per-project storage reached through short-lived authenticated links, tied to your account rather than an email thread.

Review target

A specialist prepares your official flexible-heater quote within 24 hours on business days. Review is free and precedes the official price.

Answers before you upload anything.

Polyimide or silicone?

Polyimide when the heater must be thin, conform to a tight radius, respond with little lag, or heat a small precise zone. Silicone when the part is larger, needs to be rugged, or runs hotter than polyimide comfortably allows. Describe the application and review will recommend one rather than leaving it to you.

What watt density can I run?

There is no honest single answer — it depends on what the heater is bonded to, whether air moves across it, and how it is controlled. Overstating it is how heaters fail. Fill in the thermal environment field and review sizes it for your assembly.

Can you design the heater if I only know the target temperature?

Yes. Set the design basis to target temperature and enter it. Power and resistance are then design outputs rather than inputs, which is usually the honest way round for a thermal requirement.

Is the amount at checkout final?

The free engineering review comes first. Depending on the service you see a live supplier price, a published fixed price, or a price from a specialist within 24 hours on business days, and nothing is charged when you submit. After the review we publish an official quote with an itemized total, lead time and a validity window, and that is the amount you are asked to pay. Accepting the official quote opens payment rather than charging you. If a later correction changes scope or price, you see an itemized revision and can approve, question or decline it. We never silently charge an increase.

How are my requirements protected?

Your technical files are stored in private project storage and accessed through short-lived authenticated links. Files, prices, replacements and approvals stay tied to your account and keep their revision history.

Get an official quote for a polyimide heater with the substrate already selected.

Describe the thermal problem, the installation, and the duty. Review sizes watt density and confirms the circuit before you are asked for an official price.

Three lead-time tiers, each with its trade on the line: Economy lengthens the quoted target range and takes a discount line; Standard is the quoted target range at the quoted price; Express shortens it and adds an expedite line. You see the line before you commit, and every range is a target, not a promise.