Hello Everyone,

Today, our topic is “What circuit boards do we do in RF Field?”

Founded in 2003, Bicheng PCB has been an established high frequency PCB supplier and exporter in Shenzhen China, servicing cellular base station antenna, high frequency passive components, microstrip line and band line circuit, millimeter wave equipment, radar systems, digital radio frequency antenna etc for more than 19 years.

Our high frequency PCBs are mainly built on 3 high frequency material brands: Rogers Corporation, Taconic and China Wangling. Dielectric constant ranges from 2.2 to 10.2 etc.

Now I list the most materials that we used, but not limited to. There are 3 principal brands and each brand has different series products.

As we know, Rogers starts from its RO3000 series, RO4000 series, RT/duroid 5000 series and RT/duroid 6000 series. Subsequently, AD series, DiClad, CuClad and TMM series come into the line card.

Taconic, There’s TLX series, RF series and TLY series, such as base station antenna (TLX-8, RF-30), satellite communication terminal antenna (RF-10), high power and miniaturized amplifier (RF-35, RF-60), millimeter wave RF backplane (TLY-5Z), etc.

Wangling, a 38-year-brand factory, alternative and competitive RF material manufacturer in many areas of aerospace and aviation, satellite communication, navigation and radar, electronic countermeasure, 4G and 5G communication etc. F4B (PTFE) and composite dielectric substrates are the main product lines.

RO3000 Series laminates are ceramic-filled PTFE composites with consistent mechanical properties and electrical stability, regardless of what DK value selected. This allows the designer to develop multi-layer board designs that use different dielectric constant materials for individual layers, without encountering war-page or reliability problems. Additionally, the RO3000 series’ dielectric constant is stable over a wide temperature range. They are intended for use in commercial microwave and RF applications.

Rogers RO4000 Series materials are woven glass reinforced hydrocarbon ceramic laminates. They are well controlled dielectric constants and wide range available (2.55-6.15). Above-average thermal conductivity (0.6-0.8W/mK), low Z-axis CTE for reliable plated through-hole and optimized cost and RF/ microwave performance are the robust attractiveness to the market.

Rogers RT/duroid high frequency circuit materials have 5000 series and 6000 series. These are random glass or ceramic filled PTFE composite laminates for use in high reliability, aerospace and defense applications with long industry presence of providing high reliability and superior performance. They feature low electrical loss, low moisture absorption, low outgassing for space applications and stable Dk over wide frequency range.

OK, Rogers’ AD series and CLTE series, the dielectric constant presents a low value, ranging 2.5 to 3, except 10.2 of AD1000.

The series of CuClad, DiClad and IsoClad laminates feature much lower dielectric constants (Dk) ranging from 2.17 to 2.40, lower electrical loss of tan δ from 0.0009 to 0.0018 at X-band and lower moisture absorption.

TC series are woven glass reinforced PTFE ceramic composites with higher thermal conductivity, which provides higher power handling, reduces hot-spots and improves device reliability and reduced operating temperatures in high power applications. We benefit from their stable Dk across wide temperature range, low loss tangent of .002 at 10 GHz and low coefficient of thermal expansion on X,Y and Z axis.

Rogers TMM series are hydrocarbon ceramic, thermoset microwave laminates combining exceptionally low thermal coefficient of dielectric constant (TCDk), wide range of Dk, copper matched CTE and dielectric constant uniformity. TMM shows excellent electrical and mechanical stability, resists creep and cold flow. It’s an ideal for strip-line and micro-strip applications with high reliability.

Now let’s move to Taconic materials.

Taconic brand has high frequency materials based on ceramic-filled PTFE, woven-glass reinforced PTFE and thermoset resin etc.

TLX series is versatile due to its 2.45 - 2.65 DK range and low dissipation factor and low water absorption. CTE on X and Y axis are also near to copper. They offer reliability in a wide range of RF applications.

RF-10, RF-60TC and CER-10 are high DK materials which are helpful in the circuit size design. “TC” material is good thermal management laminate, RF-35TC has 0.95 W/mk thermal conductivity and RF-60TC has 1.05 W/mk thermal conductivity.

TLY series are manufactured with very lightweight woven fiberglass and much more dimensionally stable. The very low Dk and low dissipation factor enables successful deployment for automotive radar applications designed at 77 GHz as well as other antennas in millimeter wave.

OK. Let’s see the last details of Wangling.

Actually Wangling has many kinds of high frequency materials which can be custom made. Also they’ve been enhancing the improvement of material structure to meet the marketing demands. So here we list the most used materials in the industry.

The first series is F4B series.

F4B-1/2 is manufactured with excellent material as per the requirements of microwave circuit in electrical performance. It features excellent electrical performance and higher mechanical strength.

F4BME-1/2 is laminated by fiberglass and PTFE with low roughness copper foil. DK ranges 2.17 to 3.0, dielectric thickness is as high as 12 mm.

F4BMX-1/2 is fabricated with woven glass fabric and PTFE with wide range of dielectric constant. The dissipation factor is much lower and resistance value is much higher than previous two materials.

F4BME-2-A is manufactured with woven glass fabric and PTFE materials filled with nano-ceramic materials. Surface resistivity is stable, PIM value is enhanced than F4BME-1/2.

F4BTME-1/2 is laminated by varnished glass and PTFE resin filled with nano-ceramic materials. The low roughness copper foil is adopted. Heat dissipation is improved with lower thermal expansion on X Y and Z axis.

TP and TF series are high DK material. Dielectric constant can be as high as 22. TP is the composites of ceramics and TF is the composites of PTFE materials. CTE in the X and Y axis is similar to copper which allows the material to exhibit excellent dimensional stability. Water absorption is also very low.

WL-CT series is made of organic polymer, ceramic filler and glass fiber. It is thermoset material with wide ranges of DK value and low dissipation factor. WL-CT materials exhibit a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) in the X and Y axis of 13-17 ppm/℃. This expansion coefficient is matched to that of copper, which allows the material to exhibit excellent dimensional stability. The Z-axis CTE is 31-50 ppm/℃, which provides exceptional plated through-hole reliability, even in severe thermal environments.

For high frequency PCBs, we can provide you with single layer board, double layer board, multi-layer board and hybrid types. PCB outline can be mechanically routed or laser cut, especially for the 5mil or 10mil thin laminates.

Vias can be tented by solder mask or plugged by resin and capped on the surface. They also can be blinded and buried in the multilayer build-up. Finished copper on board is often go with 1oz and 2oz.

Our maximum PCB size on high frequency materials is 400mm by 500mm, it can be a single board in the sheet and also can be different designs in this panel. Solder mask of green, black, blue, red and yellow etc is available in house.

All final metal surface options, such as immersion gold, HASL, immersion silver and immersion tin etc. have been successfully applied to the surface SMD pads.

When ordering a high frequency PCB, it is important to specify the basic specifications as mentioned above, especially the material designation, dielectric thickness, copper weight, surface finishes and stack-up information if they are multi-layer PCB.