Electronics designers who define circuits where frequencies of several Gigahertz form the basis of their application are in a select group of specialists. These designers need PCBs built with special materials suitable for these frequencies as FR-4 is only suitable for frequencies in the Megahertz range.
In recent years the need for this kind of application has grown enormously. Everything must be connected to everything and many of these connections go through the air via very high-frequency radio waves. These types of applications require extensive testing and experimentation which increase the need for suitable prototypes.
The demand for a pooling service was obvious and from this we conducted a thorough study of the issues and talked to people with the relevant expertise. From this our RF pool service was born with poolable (and thus most economical) buildups for 2-layer and 4-layer PCBs.
We also found two suitable materials to work with: i-Tera from Isola and RO4350B from Rogers, both offer suitable material properties for these types of circuits.
Isola I-Tera MT40 is suitable for many of today’s high speed digital and RF/microwave applications. It has a dielectric constant of 3.38, stable between -40°C and +140°C up to W-band frequencies. Tg is 215° and Td 360°. Its low dissipation factor (Df) of 0.0028 makes it a cost-effective alternative to PTFE and other commercial microwave and high-speed digital laminates.
Rogers RO4350B™ has a higher specification, making it an ideal material for broadband applications. It has excellent dimensional stability, including a Z-axis CTE comparable to that of copper. Tg is 280°.
Both materials have UL 94 V0 flammability certification.
Download the data sheet for I-Tera here and for Rogers RO4350B™ here.
For 4-layer boards we offer a standard build combining I-Tera or RO4350B™ with Isola PCL370HR high performance 180°Tg FR4 prepreg:
Read more about our RF pool service.
About Eurocircuits
When you need a reliable and affordable single-source European electronics manufacturing partner, with over 30 years of experience, then Eurocircuits is an excellent choice.
By working with us you get many pooling options, instant pricing, free DRC and DFM tools, multilingual support, and much more.
Eurocircuits offers fast and reliable on-time services without compromising on quality, using a broad range of technologies to bring you a cost-effective manufacturing service.
We help you achieve Right First Time for Manufacture through virtual manufacturing so that you can get your projects to the market on-time and on budget. Let’s make your project a reality!
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