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Many types of protective finishes are available for the copper conductors on PCBs, and when making a choice, it helps to know the characteristics and relative costs of each when developing a PCB for the highest performance over the longest lifetime. Learn more in this blog posting.

While much has been covered in previous blogs about the dielectric material properties of PCBs, knowing more about copper can reveal how it impacts the performance of high frequency analog and high speed digital (HSD) PCBs. Not all PCB copper conductors are created equal.

Creating electronic components and circuits with three-dimensional (3D) printers holds great promise for high-frequency-analog and high-speed-digital (HSD) devices. With the right printable electronic materials, 3D printing can form fine feature sizes needed for new levels of dielectric component performance. 

Dielectric constant is an important starting point for many circuit designers, whether specifying a printed circuit board (PCB) material for a design or with a material in hand and using its Dk in computer circuit simulations. Especially at higher, mmWave frequencies where wavelengths are short and circuit dimensions must be precise, according to a substrate’s Dk, the accuracy of a circuit material’s Dk can impact the success of a prototype. Learn how to determine it accurately.

As readers learned in the first part of this two-part ROG blog,¹ printed circuit boards (PCBs) can be made for millimeter-wave frequencies by considering circuit-material characteristics when making the transition upward from microwave to millimeter-wave circuits. This second part of the blog explores how different circuit technologies often used at microwave frequencies and different circuit materials handle higher-frequency, millimeter-wave circuits.