Microwave Tech - Circuit board factory: talk about what is a high-frequency board

Circuit board factory: talk about what is a high-frequency board

Special circuit boards with higher electromagnetic frequencies. Generally speaking, high-frequency boards can be defined as frequencies above 1GHz. Its various physical properties, accuracy, and technical parameters require very high requirements, and are often used in automotive anti-collision systems, satellite systems, radio systems and other fields. The price is high, usually around 1.8 per square centimeter, which is about 18,000 yuan per square meter.
1. The circuit board impedance control requirements are relatively strict, and the relative line width control is very strict, with a general tolerance of about 2%.
2. The circuit board manufacturer cannot grind the board before doing the solder mask, otherwise the adhesion will be very poor and can only be roughened with a micro-etching solution.
3. PCB boards are mostly PTFE materials, and there will be a lot of burrs when molded with ordinary milling cutters, and special milling cutters are required.
4. High-frequency circuit board is a special circuit board with higher electromagnetic frequency. Generally speaking, high-frequency can be defined as the frequency above 1GHz.
5. Due to the special plate, the adhesion of PTH copper sinking is not high. It is usually necessary to roughen the vias and the surface with the help of plasma processing equipment to increase the adhesion of PTH hole copper and solder mask ink.

Its various physical properties, accuracy, and technical parameters require very high requirements, and are often used in automotive anti-collision systems, satellite systems, radio systems and other fields.

The high frequency of electronic equipment is the development trend, especially with the increasing development of wireless networks and satellite communications, information products are moving towards high speed and high frequency, and communication products are moving towards the standardization of voice, video and data for wireless transmission with large capacity and speed. Therefore, the development of new-generation products requires high-frequency substrates. Communication products such as satellite systems and mobile phone receiving base stations must use high-frequency circuit boards. In the next few years, they will inevitably develop rapidly, and high-frequency substrates will be in large demand.

1. The high-frequency circuit board substrate should have low water absorption, and high water absorption will cause dielectric constant and dielectric loss when wet.
2. The thermal expansion coefficient of the high-frequency circuit board base material and copper foil must be the same. If they are inconsistent, it will cause the copper foil to separate during the hot and cold changes.
3. The dielectric loss (Df) of the high-frequency circuit board substrate material must be small, which mainly affects the quality of signal transmission. The smaller the dielectric loss, the smaller the signal loss.
4. The dielectric constant (Dk) of the high-frequency circuit board substrate must be small and stable. Generally speaking, the smaller the better. The signal transmission rate is inversely proportional to the square root of the material's dielectric constant. High dielectric constant is likely to cause signals Transmission delays.
5. Other heat resistance, chemical resistance, impact strength, peel strength, etc. of the high-frequency circuit board substrate material must also be good. Generally speaking, high frequency can be defined as the frequency above 1GHz. At present, the most commonly used high-frequency circuit board substrate is a fluorine-based dielectric substrate, such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which is usually called Teflon, and is usually used above 5 GHz. In addition, FR-4 or PPO substrates are also used, which can be used for products between 1GHz and 10GHz.

At the present stage, the three types of high-frequency circuit board materials: epoxy resin, PPO resin and fluorine resin are the cheapest cost of epoxy resin and the most expensive fluorine resin; and the dielectric constant, dielectric loss, Considering water absorption and frequency characteristics, fluorine-based resin is the best and epoxy resin is inferior. When the frequency of the product application is higher than 10GHz, only the fluorine-based resin printed board can be applied. Obviously, the performance of fluorine-based resin high-frequency substrates is much higher than other substrates, but its shortcomings are low rigidity and large thermal expansion coefficient in addition to high cost. For polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), in order to improve performance, a large amount of inorganic substances (such as silica SiO2) or glass cloth are used as reinforcing fillers to increase the rigidity of the substrate and reduce its thermal expansion.

In addition, due to the molecular inertness of the PTFE resin itself, it is not easy to bond with copper foil, so special surface treatment of the bonding surface with copper foil is required. The treatment method includes chemical etching or plasma etching on the surface of PTFE to increase the surface roughness or add a layer of adhesive film between the copper foil and the PTFE resin to improve the bonding force, but it may affect the performance of the medium. The development of the entire fluorine-based high-frequency board substrate requires the cooperation of raw material suppliers, research units, equipment suppliers, PCB manufacturers, and communication product manufacturers to keep up with the rapid development of high-frequency circuit boards. Needs.