microwave materials 11
Advances in high frequency printed circuit board
materials
By Art Aguayo, Rogers Corporation
A
ccess to wireless high speed data is
quickly becoming a necessity in multiple
markets like Defense/Aerospace and
Mobile Networks. Future warriors, be they
soldiers or businessmen, will require ubiquitous
access to high speed data rates in order to
complete their missions with success. In order to
address these needs, communication technologies
and networks will need to handle data that is
expected to double every year, and to do so will
bring new challenges from the design community
and to the high frequency supplier base. Increased
densities, increased functionality, higher power
levels and overall reduced total solution costs
need to be addressed, and it all begins with the
high frequency printed circuit board (PCB). This
paper will cover advances in microwave/RF
materials technology that addresses the needs
of designers responsible for developments from
defense systems to commercial 4G networks.
High frequency organic PCB materials have
been used in microwave/RF applications since
the 1950’s. The first generation of materials
were mainly a composite of PTFE (Teflon®)
and woven glass. They offered design engineers
the advantage of having controlled dielectric
constants and low dielectric losses (loss
tangent) for use in applications up to 10 GHz.
The applications using these materials were
mainly found in the defense and aerospace
market. Performance and not cost was the
focus of these early high frequency PCB
applications. For the next 40 years, variations
of these materials were introduced into this
market. Replacing woven glass with random
glass fibers or ceramic filler allowed suppliers
of high frequency laminates to address the
higher performance needs of designers, who
were mainly still working on defense and
aerospace projects. The 1990’s brought about
many changes. Decreased defense spending
and the emergence of mobile communications
required RF/microwave designers to focus on
reducing total system cost. Successful PCB
materials introduced during this time not only
had to perform electrically, but as important,
fabrication and assembly costs needed to
Figure 1: Development history of high frequency PCB materials.
be in line with traditional FR-4 practices. A
new generation of materials was developed
to address these needs which incorporated
thermoset hydrocarbon resins. This allowed
PCB facilities to process these materials very
much like FR-4 and reduce conversion costs,
in particular multilayer board designs (MLB’s).
Figure 1 shows the development history of high
frequency PCB materials. For the past 10 to
15 years, we have been mainly working with
these materials as the defense market has gone
through changes and the telecommunications
market has gone from 2G to 3G. However, today
we are faced with new challenges. The defense
market is seeking to increase significantly its
communications network capabilities while the
mobile communication systems are moving on to
4G, all of which means new challenges and new
materials. Over the past two years, we have seen
many new materials introduced into this market
that allow designers to deal with challenges in a
more cost effective way, be it designing airborne
antenna systems or power amplifiers for base
stations or E-band backhaul transceiver radios.
Reduced circuit losses
Many applications today are looking at
means to reduce overall circuit losses. In
some applications, the driver is to reduce
losses because they are operating at very high
frequencies like +60 GHz, as is the case of
Microwave Engineering Europe ● December 2009
E‑band microwave radios For other applications
the reduced loss is a means by which heat
generation can be minimized in high power
amplifiers. In microwave circuits, there are
three main types of losses associated with PCB
technology. The losses are dielectric losses,
conductor losses and radiation losses. Radiation
losses are more design dependent and outside of
the scope of this article, while dielectric losses
are mainly related to the dissipation factor
(DF) of the dielectric material and are usually
well understood by the designer. On the other
hand, conductor losses are not always properly
accounted for in many designs and can be the
source of discrepancies between modeled and
measured values. We will discuss the effects on
conductor losses from both conductor roughness
and metal finish (surface plating).
The roughness of the conductor and the
interface between the conductor and the
dielectric has a big impact on the overall loss
of the circuit. A rougher copper surface will
translate to more surface area and a longer
path for the wave to propagate. This effect
becomes more dominant as frequencies increase
or as dielectric thickness decreases (in case of
millimeter wave applications both are true).
Use of low profile (or reverse treated) copper is
recommended for high frequency applications.
However, copper peel strength is often
proportional to the surface roughness of the
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12 microwave materials

copper foil for a given resin system. In the case
of high frequency thermoset materials, smooth
coppers were not able to be used due to the
low resultant adhesion of the copper foil trace
on the PCB material. Development of a novel
copper surface modifier has allowed the use
of smooth coppers, down to 0.6 µm rms, to be
used without sacrificing the peel strength seen
with standard foils used on traditional high
frequency PCB materials. Figure 2 shows the
improvement in insertion loss of a bare copper
50 W microstrip conductor on 0.1-mm‑thick
(4-mil‑thick) dielectric with these new copper
surface modifiers used in RO4350B™ LoPro™
laminate.
The use of a low profile copper on the ceramic
filled hydrocarbon material improves the insertion
loss by about 40 percent, allowing the designer
to use these materials at frequencies where once
losses were prohibiting its usage. This improved
Table 1: Impact on use of smooth copper of thermoset hydrocarbon material at 2.1 GHz.
performance on a ceramic hydrocarbon laminate
narrows the gap in loss between this type of
substrate and the lower DF PTFE substrates,
enabling the designer to extend the frequency use
of these more cost effective materials.
Plating finishes can impact the overall
loss of the circuit due to lower conductivity
metallizations that cover the edges of the trace
and the currents that run at these locations.
Silver plating may be the only exception to this
increased loss effect due to its similar conductivity
to copper. This finish, however, is not as
preferred as other finishes like electroless nickel /
immersion gold (ENIG) or immersion tin.
ENIG is a finish that has been widely used
throughout the PCB industry over the past years.
This finish is very good for maintaining a good
clean surface and remains easy for soldering over
a long period of time. Unfortunately, the nickel
is not a good conductor and is much lower in
Figure 2: A
ceramic filled
hydrocarbon
laminate
compared to same
laminate using a
low profile copper
and showing
insertion loss over
frequency [2].
Figure 3: Data
showing insertion
loss versus
frequency of
copper only as
compared to
copper plated with
ENIG (electroless
nickel/immersion
gold).
conductivity than the copper. Also, nickel has
a ferromagnetic property, which can adversely
affect the magnetic fields. Most of the plating
chemistry suppliers in the PCB industry have
addressed the ferromagnetic properties with a
certain alloy of nickel that is used in this process.
However, the lower conductivity remains an
issue. An internal Rogers Corporation study
[1] was performed regarding the effect of
ENIG plated finish and conductor loss. A chart
summarizing some of the information in that
study is shown in figure 3.
Selection of low profile copper and low loss
plating are just as critical as the selection of
proper material when designing high frequency
circuits. A not so apparent benefit of smooth
copper is the decrease in temperature rise due
to RF power transmission. Losses form part
of the calculations to estimate temperature
rise. Since conductor smoothness influences
insertion loss, then it is a straight forward
exercise to see the connection between reduced
surface roughness and improvement in thermal
management of an RF circuit. To illustrate
the point, table 1 compares the estimated RF
power needed to increase surface temperature
by 100°C for a microstrip circuit at 2.1 GHz
using traditional 0.5 mm (20 mil) thick
RO4350B material and the same thickness of
the new RO4350B LoPro product (calculations
performed using the MWI online calculator
found on the Rogers Corporation Advanced
Circuit Materials website [2]).
Inversely what this example demonstrates
is that for a given power level, the resultant
temperature rise will be lower when using
smooth copper like the LoPro copper and lower
operating temperatures will overall increase the
MTBF for a system.
Thin material choices
Commercial high frequency applications have
traditionally kept their operating frequencies
below 40 GHz. Applications above 40 GHz
usually have been military in nature, but with the
advent of 4G (LTE/WiMAX) and the significant
forecasted increase of mobile broadband data,
concerns exist about efficient means by which to
connect wireless infrastructure to the wireline
network and to itself. One area of significance
here is the development of E-band radios
which operate at frequencies above 60 GHz
for microwave links. Some OEMs have been
developing systems with traditional materials but
with improved conductor losses, as explained
in the previous section. Other teams have been
using completely new types of materials that are

Microwave Engineering Europe ● December 2009 ● www.mwee.com


by nature thin and homogeneous. One concern
with woven glass reinforced materials has been
whether the periodicity of the glass weave can
affect the effective dielectric constant of the
material at a microscopic level, since once we
get to 77 GHz in frequency a ¼ wavelength
becomes 0.8 mm (25 mils). Figure 4 shows
how a trace, depending on where it lies on the
glass weave, could find itself sitting on top of a
resin rich surface or closer to the glass weave.
Depending on the application or circuit feature
(transmission line versus edge coupled filter),
this may have an impact (this phenomena has
been documented in the high speed digital
market using epoxy/woven glass materials)
A more homogeneous material would not
experience this micro-variation in electrical
properties. Such a material has been available
for a couple of years but is just now receiving
more attention due to increased interest in
very high frequency applications. This material
incorporates a liquid crystalline polymer (LCP)
with electrical properties that include a dielectric
constant of 2.9 and loss tangent of 0.0025
Figure 4: Example of glass
weave on microvariation of
dielectric constant.
Figure 5: Conductor backed
coplanar waveguide
(CBCPW).
Figure 6:
Attenuation curve of
CBCPW using 2 mil
thick LCP.
Microwave Engineering Europe ● December 2009
microwave materials 13
measured at 10 GHz [i.e., Rogers ULTRALAM®
3850 material available in 25 µm, 50 µm and
100 µm (1, 2 and 4 mil) thickness.]
LCP has excellent, very high frequency
capabilities. A paper was written regarding the
use of thin LCP laminates. A LCP circuit was
tested over a very wide range of frequencies up
to 110 GHz. The test vehicle was a conductor
backed coplanar waveguide (CBCPW) and
a simple drawing of that transmission line is
shown in figure 5.
The electrical performance measured in this
study [3] was outstanding and can be seen in
figure 6.
The circuit fabrication issues associated with
LCP depend heavily upon the circuit construction.
The circuit mentioned in the high frequency
study was a relatively simple double-sided plated-
through-hole (PTH) circuit. This construction is
fairly easy to fabricate although attention needs to
be paid to proper drilling parameters and use of
a plasma cycle prior to PTH formation (similar to
PTFE). Simple homogeneous multilayer circuits
(3 to 4 layers) can be achieved. More complex
constructions requiring sequential lamination are
difficult due to the thermoplastic nature of both
core and bond layer.
Defense and Aerospace
The first market for high frequency circuit board
materials was defense & aerospace, and although
much is said today about the downsizing of this
market, opportunities within advanced electronic
systems continue. New materials have been
designed that are enabling new technologies
to move forward. Airborne radar antennas are
becoming more complex and a greater part of
the military’s arsenal of tools to monitor the
world’s hot spots. To better serve the designer
needs, light weight/low dielectric constant PCB
dielectrics are needed. Foam PCB materials
have been introduced before but with limited
success. Their main drawback was the lack of
true circuit board processability, in particular the
ability to form plated through holes and thermal
limitations. There is a next generation of products
that addresses this problem. RT/duroid® 5880LZ
material is a low dielectric constant (1.96),
lightweight (1.37 g/cm3) PCB substrate that is
PTH capable and thermally robust. In addition,
with a low value for coefficient of thermal
expansion (41.5 ppm/°C, Z-axis) and low short
term thermal coefficient of dielectric constant
(+22 ppm/°C), seen in figure 7, it is well suited
for temperature varying environments.
In addition to light weight circuit materials,
airborne antennas commonly need thin layers
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14 microwave materials
with resistors for use in power distribution
networks (combiner/splitters). Resistive layer
foils have been available for over two decades,
but their use has been hindered by the fact
that resistor tolerances can typically exceed 20
percent unless a secondary trimming process is
incorporated. Significant improvements to the “as
etched” tolerance have been achieved by making
slight modifications to the copper base, dielectric
and lamination process. Figure 8 illustrates the
reduction in resistor variation after etch for
the new RT/duroid 6202PR compared to the
traditional RT/duroid 6202 material.
Designers now have the ability to work
with thin temperature stable dielectrics,
achieved through the use of a selected filler/
resin combination and tight dimensional
tolerances (due to woven glass structures for
reinforcement) in combination with resistive
copper foils to achieve high level passive
integration within a MLB structure.
Conclusion
Evolving market needs continue to drive forward
development of high frequency circuit board
materials. Whether it be low frequency wireless
Microwave Engineering Europe ● December 2009
Figure 7:
Temperature
Coefficient of
Dielectric Constant
for RT/duriod
5880LZ.
Figure 8:
Improvements
in Ohmega Foil
resistors on RT/
duriod 6202PR
versus RT/duroid
6202.
infrastructure or more demanding, like +60 GHz
microwave radios or defense airborne systems,
new materials are being introduced to enable
the next generation designs. This work however
comes from close partnership throughout the
supply chain. Early collaboration between
OEM designers, circuit fabricators and material
suppliers is critical to assure that the goals of the
design can be met in a timely fashion and at an
acceptable total cost of ownership. ■
References
[1] I nternal Rogers Corporation study,
“Increased Circuit Loss due to Ni/Au”,
Dr. Al Horn, January 2006.
[2] T
 echnical Literature Design 3.3.2,
Rogers Corporation, “Temperature Rise
Estimations in Rogers High Frequency
Circuit Boards Carrying Direct or RF
Current”, Revised 3/2003.
[3] T
 hompson, Kirby, Papapolymerou,
Tentzerix, “W-Band Characterization of
Finite Ground Coplanar Transmission
Line on Liquid Crystal (LCP) Substrates”,
IEEE Polytronic Conference 2003.
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Development environment
brings wireless networking to
sports watches
Texas Instruments claims eZ430-
Chronos is the first customizable
development environment within a
sports watch. Taking the popular line
of eZ430 development tools to the next
level, the kit allows developers to easily
harness the integration, low power and
wireless capabilities of the company’s
CC430 microcontroller.
Chronos is designed to provide
customers with all of the hardware and
software needed to immediately begin
development of wireless networking
applications. It is equipped with sensors
for measurement and motion-based
control and can serve as a central hub
for nearby wireless sensors so that users
have remote access to real-time data
from devices such as pedometers and
heart rate monitors.
Additionally, Chronos includes a
USB-RF access point for wireless set-up
and PC connectivity, as well as multiple
production-ready open source projects
to foster easy evaluation, design and
community collaboration.
Key benefits include a wearable
form factor that allows customers
to conveniently develop in remote
locations, three frequency bands of
915, 868, and 433 MHz to enable
worldwide usage, and an integrated
3-axis accelerometer for motion
sensitive control as well as sensors
for measurement, including altimeter,
temperature and battery voltage.
TI’s SimpliciTI and BM Innovations’
BlueRobin RF protocols enable
developers to easily establish wireless
links regardless of RF knowledge.
Other features include an eZ430
emulator for simplified programming
and debugging on top of base software
framework and RF functions, internal
CC430 memory for data storage, holding
up to 11 hours of data such as heart
rate, a large 96 segment LCD driven
directly by the CC430, and a USB-RF
access point for PC communication and
automation, supported by production-
ready source projects.
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