Microwave Journal
www.microwavejournal.com/articles/11016-rogers-to-highlight-pcb-materials

Rogers To Highlight PCB Materials

April 27, 2011

Rogers Corp. will display some of its latest laminate materials for high speed digital and high power RF/microwave circuits at the upcoming Del Mar Electronics & Design Show. Representatives from Rogers Advanced Circuit Materials Division will be at Booth 622 to offer guidance on the use of their wide range of circuit-board materials, including Theta®, RO4360™, and RT/duroid® 6035HTC laminates.

The Del Mar Electronics & Design Show (DMEDS), one of Southern California’s premier trade events for those who design, manufacture and test electronic products, is scheduled for May 4-5, 2011 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego, CA.

Rogers’ halogen-free Theta materials are engineered for mechanical and electrical performance in high speed digital circuits. With a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of 50 ppm/°C in the z-axis, they have about 30 percent less expansion, across the same temperature range, than standard FR-4 for improved reliability of plated through holes (PTHs) in multilayer circuits. The low dissipation factor of 0.0118 at 1 GHz ensures that Theta materials preserve signal integrity in the most challenging digital circuit designs. Theta materials feature a dielectric constant of 3.90 at 1 GHz. In addition, these dependable laminates support RoHS-compliant manufacturing processes and meet UL-94-V-0 level flammability requirements.

Economical RO4360 laminates provide performance similar to PTFE with the processing ease of FR-4. These glass-reinforced thermoset materials offer the same reliability that customers have come to expect from Rogers RO4350B™ laminates. They are fortified with ceramic filler to achieve mechanical stability as evidenced by a CTE of 30 ppm/°C in the z-axis and excellent thermal conductivity of 0.8 W/m-K.

RO4360 circuit materials are formulated with a dielectric constant of 6.15 in the z-axis at 2.5 and 10 GHz, enabling designers of antennas and power amplifiers to miniaturize their circuits while also reducing material costs. The low dissipation factor of 0.0038 at 10 GHz helps minimize signal losses, and the compatibility with standard automated assembly methods and the processing ease of FR-4 helps keep manufacturing costs low.

Rogers RT/duroid 6035HTC laminates are designed for applications where high reliability is required, including in circuits for military and aerospace systems. These high-performance materials incorporate a unique filler material to achieve a relative dielectric constant of 3.5 in the z-axis at 10 GHz with extremely high thermal conductivity of 1.44 W/m-K. RT/duroid 6035HTC circuit materials are ideally suited for high-frequency, high-power circuits, including amplifiers, couplers, filters, and power combiners/dividers. The high thermal conductivity, combined with a low loss tangent of 0.0013 at 10 GHz, enables circuit designers to optimize gain and efficiency in high-power amplifiers.