Microwave Materials

Electronic Substrates
 
  This Months Focus:  
  Insertion Loss and
Loss Tangent
 
     
  Thermally Conductive PTFE: TC600  
     
  Thermally Conductive FR-4  
     
  Search:
     
  Design and Application Notes

Thermally Conductive Laminates

Thermal Management Guide
High Power applications such as RF Power Amplifiers, Antennas, High power LEDs and DC-DC power converters enjoy greater reliability through the utilization of higher Thermally Conductive Laminates.  This guide explorers the affect on component reliability, improved solder joint reliability, lower loss, improved power handling and greater phase stability.
Expanding the Thermal Management Tools for RF Infrastructure & Power Amplifiers – Low Loss Thermally Conductive PTFE and Thermally Conductive FR-4 Laminates
Arlon Presentation at IWPC Technical Exchange Forum.  Provides benchmarking and thermal testing of new materials with higher levels of Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Stability (dielectric constant change with temperature).

Electronic Substrates
Green Nonwoven Aramid Materials
Designing consumer electronics for markets with environmentally conscious consumers? Arlon's 65GT offers an elegant solution to forming laser microvias in hybrid HDI boards. Presented and published at Chicago SMTA-2002.
Understanding Tg
What is Tg and what does it mean to you as a board designer? Understanding the difference between Tg and Operating Temperature
Back to the Future
Foil lamination, originally a decades old cost cutting technique, now is mainstream in making HDI boards with laser microvia structure. Originally published in Printed Circuit Design.

Microwave Materials
Microwave Laminate Material Considerations for Multilayer Applications
IEEE European Microwave 2007 Paper
Combining Dielectrics
Materials with different electrical properties such as PTFE and FR-4 can be combined to produce cost-effective hybrid designs. This paper provides some hints and tips on designing such boards.
NASA Outgassing
Considering building a space based system? Arlon has numerous materials that have been tested and listed with NASA. Test data and interpretation of the test itself.
Soft Substrate Options
Considering replacing ceramic with soft substrates? What you should know about the soft substrate options.
Passive Intermodulation Distortion
A simplified look at PIM and its implications. Arlon has developed a line of laminate products with enhanced PIM performance.
Materials for Wireless Infrastructure
What materials are required for the various elements of a wireless base station? How can you make an educated choice that balances economics with performance?
PTFE Multilayers
Don't be afraid of multilayering PTFE materials. What you need to know to design robust multilayered PTFE boards.
Microwaves for the Complete Idiot
Doing layouts on microwave PWB's but don't know where the designers are coming from in material selection and properties? Become "microwave literate" with this tutorial article originally published in Circuitree Magazine.
Insertion Loss and Loss Tangent
The optimal selection of a Low Loss Microwave Laminate requires much more due diligence than the comparison of reported Loss Tangent (tanδ) or Dissipation Factor values (Df) of various competitive materials. The shortcoming of depending upon reported values are due to the fact that they measured under idealized conditions which neglects moisture and processing affects on material performance and omits the importance of conductor losses (and the choice of the copper profile).
Microwave Laminate Material Considerations For Multilayer Military Applications
RF and microwave systems have become increasingly sensitive to phase and dielectric constant variations in microwave laminates, due to the increased use of phase-fed networks and phase-steered antennas. Requirements for a higher degree of electrical stability for military communications, navigation, radar manifold and beam-steering have driven innovations in microwave laminates.  

General
"Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Laminates, but Were Afraid to Ask"
Arlon wrote "The Book" on laminates - and this is the book! A wealth of information on materials and processing.
Thermount Applications Guidelines
Arlon's development and technical service people have developed a large body of information on nonwoven aramid materials that is presented in this document.