energized by one or more pulses applied sequentially or simultaneously to one or more of the contact pads 20 flexible circuit leads are bonded to pads or electrodes 40 on the outer edges of the substrate 28 to enable this bonding a windows 22 24 which extend through the flexible circuit 18 are created in the flexible circuit 18 to allow a bonder thermode to apply force and temperature to the flexible circuit leads 37 that are resting on the bond pads 40 the windows 22 24 in the tab head assembly 14 are chemically milled in the flexible tape 18 earlier during intermediate assembly of the tab head assembly 14 after the leads 37 have been bonded to the bond pads 40 an encapsulant 34 is dispensed across the windows 22 24 from the top to protect the exposed bond pad region from intrusion of ink or contamination the portion of the windows 22 24 which are off the substrate extend back approximately to the location on the flexible circuit 18 where the laminated cover layer 38 of the flex circuit 18 terminates thus the openings in windows 22 24 must be large enough to be open near the end of the cover layer 38 so that the leads 37 without any cover layer 38 are fully encapsulated by adhesive 90 and encapsulant 34 for additional details on intermediate assembly see u s pat no 5 442 384 entitled u201c integrated nozzle.