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As a professional manufacturer of high-frequency circuit boards, GESP PCB often encounter the question of which is better,FR-4 VS. ROGERS PCB For Manufacturing RF PCBS？ This article will explain in detail the difference between FR4 and Rogers.
FR-4 is a kind of flame-resistant material grade code. which means that the resin material must be able to extinguish itself after the burning . it means a material grade. so there are very many kinds of FR-4 grade materials used in general circuit boards. but mostly choose epoxy resin plus filler (filler) and glass fiber composite materials.
FR-4 PCB as the substrate for PCB. mainly classified into the following four types.
Rogers PCB is a type of high frequency board produced by Rogers. Unlike conventional PCBs, The main raw material is epoxy resin. there is no glass fiber in the middle of the board. and the ceramic base applied as the high frequency material. Rogers has superior dielectric constant and temperature stability. and its coefficient of thermal expansion of dielectric constant is very consistent with copper foil. which can improve the shortcomings of PTFE substrate. it is ideal for high frequency pcb design. as well as commercial microwave and RF applications. Because of its extremely low water absorption. it is ideal for high humidity applications. at the same time, providing customers in the high frequency board industry. with the highest quality materials and related resources to control product quality.
When comparing fr4 materials with rogers PCB. they are usually used for the production of high frequency circuit boards. We can also combine the two types of boards to meet the needs of our customers in terms of price and performance.
FR-4 is one of the competitive-cost materials used in the manufacture of PCB. It preferred for minimal processing costs. Even though PCBs made of FR-4 materials are known for cost-effective and widely used. However, if you are not on a budget limit ,and need high-performing PCBs made of the best materials. you could choose Rogers materials. Nevertheless, By considering the price of the content and its processing needs, it becomes possible to determine if you get value for your money.
High Frequencies
People like printed circuit boards made of FR-4 . because they are cheap, reliable, and easy to understand how they work. widly used from making microwaves to making audio circuits. Unfortunately, high-frequency applications are not the best place for PCB made of FR-4. Rogers made the most well-known special laminates for high frequencies. The dielectric constant of its materials is about 20% lower than that of FR-4 materials. which used to make printed circuit boards.
The best way to decide if high-frequency laminates will work better for your project. It is to look at the mechanical and electrical needs of the job. If you think there are too many electrical and mechanical differences. Rogers’ materials is a better choice.
One of the most important things that affect the impedance. and stability of a board is its dielectric constant. The more stable the impedance is, the higher the dielectric constant. Even though FR4 is the least expensive sub-state. Its highest dielectric value is 4.5, while Rogers PCBs have a higher and broader range, from 6.5 to 11. Because of this, Rogers PCBs are the best choice for high-temperature applications . where stable impedance is important.
Electronic circuits that operate at high frequencies need constant and stable DK values. over a wide range to make PCB material selection easier for designers. A substance with a high dielectric constant will store a large amount of charges. resulting in increased voltage and capacitance. Rogers’ PCB material supply a wide variety of frequencies with a consistent value of dk. making it an excellent choice for broadband purposes and applications. Rogers PCB’s dielectric constant also has comparatively low temperature coefficient values. allowing it as first choice for use in temperature-sensitive devices. Rogers 4350b has a dielectric constant of 3.66. making it appropriate for connecting two sites in a microwave application.
Heat management materials are an important p
art of many electronic uses.
Because the temperature of these things needs to kept at certain levels.
So, it is true that materials that can handle heat are a basic requirement for making PCBs.
If PCBs need to work at a wide range of high temperatures with few changes. Rogers materials are better options. In short, when it comes to managing temperature. Rogers material does a better job than FR-4 because it has less variation.
Moisture absorption is the electrical and thermal properties of the substrate material. This, in turn, affects the performance of the board. Rogers PCBs have minimal moisture absorption . and so provide greatest efficiency in a wide range of environmental conditions.
The Rogers 4350B’s materials are suited for high power RF designs and super-active appliances due to their low loss capability and reliable control of their dielectric constant (DK).
With a frequency of 77 GHz, this Rogers PCB type is suitable for automobile radar applications, as well as 5G wireless applications and ADAS.
The 3006 type has outstanding mechanical and electrical stability, as well as a consistent dielectric constant throughout a wide range of temperatures. It also removes the step change from the Dk.
The 3010 is one of the most cost-effective variants that uses advanced ceramic-filled PTFE materials. As a result, its stability simplifies the broadband components.
The Rogers 5880 is made of glass microfibers and has a low DK and loss characteristic. As a result, the model is well-suited for broadband and high-frequency applications.
The 6002 variant is equipped with low DK materials that are suited for complex microwave designs. As a result, it is perfect for multi-layer board designs.
This RO6010 is excellent for microwave and electronic board applications where a high DK is required. Furthermore, the model is perfect if you intend to deal with circuit size reduction.
The Rogers 4003 model employs glass fabric types 1674 and 1080. Its settings are all the same; they do not support bromination.
This 4835 laminate is a low-loss material with great stability at high temperatures and significant oxidation resistance. It provides traditional glass or epoxy FR-4 methods as well as low-cost circuit fabrication.
This laminate strikes the ideal balance between processing capabilities and performance. Furthermore, the low-loss laminate is made up of hydrocarbon ceramic-filled thermostat components.
1.Different signal working frequency has different requirements for PCB high frequency board plate.
2.work in 622Mb/s above fiber optic communication products and 1G above 3GHz below the small signal microwave transceiver. you can use modified epoxy resin materials such as S1139. 10GHz due to more stable, lower cost, multi-layer press board process and FR4 the same. Such as 622Mb/s data multiplexing split, clock extraction. small signal amplification, optical transceiver and other similar plates. So that the production of multi-layer board and cost is slightly higher than FR4 (high 4 cents / cm2 or so). the disadvantage is that the thickness of the substrate is not as complete as FR4 varieties.
At present, the domestic general use is RO4350, RO4003c single-sided high frequency board. double-sided high frequency board. multi-layer high frequency board. high frequency mixed pressure board, high frequency pure pressure board.
Such as RO4003C Rogers high-frequency plate manufacturers . produce specifications of 10mil/20mil/30mil/60mil . and other four kinds of plate thickness is commonly used. of course, there are Rogers or Taconite plates. mainly according to your design requirements to choose different models of high-frequency plate. the dielectric constant 2.2-10.6 ranging.
3.PCB board working below 1GHz can choose FR4. with low cost and mature multi-layer press board technology. If the signal impedance is low (50 ohms), it needs strict impedance and interline coupling when wiring. The disadvantage is that different high frequency board manufacturers . and different batches of FR4 boards have different doping and dielectric constants (4.2-5.4).
4.3GHz below the large signal microwave circuits. such as power amplifiers and low-noise amplifiers recommended to use similar RO4350 plate. RO4350 dielectric constant is quite stable. dielectric constant RO4003C dielectric constant of 3.38. these two conventional high-frequency plate. loss factor are relatively low, good heat resistance characteristics. processing technology and FR4 equivalent.
Contact us for more information about Rogers PCB.
Multilayer PCB trends are high speed, multifunction, large capacity, and small volume. With the continuous development of electronics technology. especially the extensive and in-depth application of large-scale integrated circuits. Multilayer printed circuit boards are rapidly developing to high density and high precision. micro-fine lines, small aperture penetration. such as blind buried holes, and high board thickness. aperture ratio, and other technologies to meet the needs of the market.
The current multilayer PCB production process is to achieve the incremental layers and then stack them up together. At first, the inner board was finished. and then layer by layer by stack-up-fit for structured layer increase. To fully cure the material to increase the stability of the board between the layers Each lamination usually needs to reach a temperature of 175 °C and maintain it for more than 70 minutes. to achieve the standard lamination environment for the application of substrates plus the waiting time for the heating up and cooling down processes. Single lamination times are usually up to 4 hours or more. The more layers, the more laminations, and the longer the production cycle of the board.
A multilayer PCB is a multi-layer alignment layer circuit board. For example, between every two layers, there is a thin dielectric layer. Multilayer PCBs have at least three conductive layers, two of which are on the outer surface, while the insulating board synthesizes the remaining layer. The electrical connection is usually achieved by plating holes. These holes are in the cross-section of the board. During production, each layer produced well. optical equipment and stacked together. Let the multi-layer circuit be stacked up on a piece of PCB. This is a multi-layer circuit board. Multilayer PCB types are multilayer rigid PCB, multilayer flexible PCB, and multilayer flexible PCB.
The Multilayer PCB has many features. high assembly density, small size, lightweight. The high assembly density reduced the connections between the components. Thus improving reliability. At the same time, it increased the number of layers of wiring. thus increasing design flexibility. It can form a circuit with a certain impedance; it can also form a high-speed transmission circuit. There are also set-circuit and magnetic shielding layers. and metal core heat dissipation layers. That can be set to meet the needs of shielding, heat dissipation, and other special functions. and simple installation, high reliability.
But there are also some disadvantages to multilayer PCB. high product price; a long production cycle; and requires sophisticated testing methods.
multi-layer er board lamination, more than the use of kraft paper as a heat transfer buffer. Place the kraft paper between the hot plate and the steel plate of the laminating machine. with a slope that is closest to the heating curve of the bulk material. so that it can easily stack-up multiple substrates. multi-layer plate between the layers of the plate to minimize the temperature difference. commonly used specifications for 90 pounds to 150 pounds.
When finished multi-layer stack-up together. after the sheets are placed in each opening position. The temperature increased from the stack-up’s top column. and lifted upward from the bottom layer to stack-up the loose material into each opening for bonding. At the same time, the film for bonding starts to soften gradually and even flows. The stack-upure used for top extrusion cannot be too large. This method initially uses a lower stack-upure (15 to 50 PSI) called “kissing stack-upure”.
But when the resin softens in each film loose material by heat and gelatinization, it needs to be raised to full stack-upure (300 500 PSI), called “low stack-upure.”
Refers to the mass-produced multilayer PCB. the outer layer of copper foil and film with the inner skin stack-uped together. to replace the traditional stack-up law of the early single-sided thin substrate.
It is a kind of container filled with high-temperature saturated water. vapor and can apply high air stack-upure. The laminated substrate specimen was put in it. for a while to force the water vapor into the plate. and then remove the plate specimen and place it on the high-temperature molten tin surface. to measure whether it is separate for each layer.
Use copper foil to pre-position on the inner laminate. and scanned for positioning after stack-uping. and then drill out the tool hole from its center to be set on the drilling machine for drilling.
Before stack-uping multi-layer PCB or substrates. We need to prepare the inner board, film, copper skin, and other kinds of loose material. even steel, kraft paper padding. to complete the top-to-bottom alignment, to be able to be carefully sent into the stack-up for hot stack-uping. for the sake of mass production speed and quality. The 8 layers need to be in automated way. Many factories combine “laminating” and “folding” into a comprehensive processing unit. The automation project is quite complicated.
We get the PCB board, you will find that the thickness is about 1mm. look carefully, in this 1mm thickness, you will see a lot of layering. PCB production is not a complete bare board production. It is made of many different materials, layer by layer, stack-uped together.
multilayer PCB lines have high speed, thick copper, and high frequency. even high Tg value of various special requirements. The requirements for the inner layer. wiring and graphic size control are getting higher and higher. For example, ARM development board, the inner layer has many impedance signal lines. but also to ensure the integrity of the impedance. so it increases the difficulty of the inner layer line production.
The number of layers of multilayer PCBs is increasing. and the alignment requirements of the inner layers are getting higher. if under the influence of temperature and humidity in the workshop environment. The film will rise and shrink. and the core board will also rise and shrink to a certain extent after production. which makes the alignment accuracy between the inner layers more complicated.
The stacking of multiple core boards and PP is prone to delamination. slippage and vapor pack residue when stack-uped together. In the process of designing the structure of the inner layer. we should consider the thickness of the dielectric between the layers, and the flow of glue. also contain the heat resistance of the sheet and other factors. and design to the corresponding stack-uped structure.
Multi-layers made of high Tg or other special plates. The roughness of the drilling of various materials is different. which increases the difficulty of removing the glue slag in the hole. Due to the high-density multilayer PCB. The production efficiency is low and it is easy to break the knife. and between different networks of over-holes The hole edges being too close to each other will lead to a CAF effect problem. So, the spacing between the hole edges of different networks was kept at 0.3mm.
Many customers lack understanding of the laminating process. It often happens after getting the multilayer PCB. we found that PCB warped edge. rolled circles and the board has the obvious problem of delamination. There are even serious quality problems, such as the existence of the inner layer of broken roads. A big reason is a piece of equipment. process and there are many defects, resulting in uncontrollable laminating quality.
The stack-up machine can accurately control the heating and cooling of the hot plate. the thermal cycle and liquid stack-upure, temperature control. Through the operation of the cold stack-up. it can effectively eliminate stress. to carry out each stack-up lamination in an efficient and high-quality way.
And the equipment has excellent processing accuracy. thus guaranteeing the reliability and low failure rate of equipment production. Together with high hardness and flat imported steel plate. raw material, high-quality PP sheet (bonding sheet), and supporting professional equipment. it can effectively avoid process defects and improve stack-up lamination quality. Such as.
Avoid excessive glue flow. uneven glue content between inner layers leading to board warping. delamination and other process defects, guarantee the high yield of multi-layer lamination!
Very low failure rate and precision automation control can reduce production risk. maintain efficient and stable production, saving time for customers!
Steel plate is one of the core accessories of lamination. such as insufficient hardness, poor flatness, etc. will cause damage to the process, such as laminated thickness tolerance precision is not high. The board surface has an indentation, etc. GESP PCB adopts imported mirror steel plates. It has high hardness, high toughness, heat resistance, stack-upure resistance, and wear resistance. It can resist thermal expansion and contraction in the handling process of collision. friction caused by deformation and scratches. Even if stack-uped together, the steel plate can still maintain a very high flatness.
X-RAY drilling target machine used for alignment between layers after lamination. The principle is that after the lamination of multilayer plates The X-Ray is used to judge the alignment between the inner layers and the punch positioning holes.
The hot melt machine is used to bond the PP to the core board through high temperature and stack-upure. The common riveting processing together. the accuracy of the alignment between layers affected the tolerance of the rivet holes. and the impact of the stack-uped together will lead to the deformation of the rivet and cause the deviation between layers.
PP sheet is a sheet material. in which the resin is in the B-phase, under the effect of temperature and stack-upure. it has fluidity and can quickly cure and complete the bonding process. and form the insulation layer together with the carrier.
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