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CONFIDENTIAL 1
Agenda:
CONFIDENTIAL 2
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric constant
D = E
D is electric displacement vector field, E is electric field intensity, is complex permittivity
When an electric field is applied to a dielectric material, electric dipole moments are
induced within the material
Polarization (P) is due to the material properties and the related dipole moments
D = 0E + P
Bold letters are
vector variables
0 is free space permittivity
CONFIDENTIAL 3
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric constant
D = 0E + P
Dielectrics used in the high frequency PCB industry are typically a linear dielectric
P = 0 c E
c is electric susceptibility of the material
CONFIDENTIAL 4
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric constant
D = 0E + P = 0 (1+ c) E = E
= j = 0 (1 + c)
is associated with dielectric constant and is associated with dissipation factor (Df) of
the material
Dk = r = /0
CONFIDENTIAL 5
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric constant
Depending on material properties, from about 10 MHz to 300 GHz, most interaction
between electric fields and substrate is due to displacement and rotation of the dipoles
CONFIDENTIAL 6
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric constant
At low radio frequencies the dipole relaxation has little effect on Dk dispersion
CONFIDENTIAL 7
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric constant
CONFIDENTIAL 9
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Anisotropy
CONFIDENTIAL 10
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Anisotropy
Anisotropy means the Dk is the not the same on all three axes of the material
With an applied electric field the dipole moments react different on the different
axes of the material
As a practical point, the non-diagonal elements are typically not significant and ignored
Additionally, the xx and yy typically have little difference and for modeling (and for
material measurement) purposes it is the r of the x-y plane which is used in conjunction
with the r of the z-axis
CONFIDENTIAL 12
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Anisotropy
For circuit design and modeling, anisotropy is typically not considered in transmission
lines, stubs and other non-edge-coupled components
As general rules:
CONFIDENTIAL 13
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
CONFIDENTIAL 14
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Copper surface roughness effects
The dominate loss component can be different, for the different circuit thicknesses
Three circuit sets made from same material but different thicknesses
Circuit material used was RO4350B laminate
CONFIDENTIAL 15
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Copper surface roughness effects
Using same material of
different thicknesses and
different copper types,
thin circuits are more
impacted by difference in
conductor loss than thick
circuits
CONFIDENTIAL RO3003 laminate is a very low loss material: typical Df @ 10 GHz is 0.001 16
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Copper surface roughness effects
Copper surface roughness impacts more than just conductor loss or insertion loss
Copper surface roughness will alter the propagation velocity (phase velocity)
CONFIDENTIAL 17
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Copper surface roughness effects
In other words
as a wave is slowed the circuit perceived effective Dk is assumed to be higher
CONFIDENTIAL 18
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Copper surface roughness effects
There are other things that can slow the wave besides a substrate with higher Dk
A rough copper surface can slow the wave propagation
Again, a slower wave translates into higher Dk even if the substrate is unchanged
CONFIDENTIAL 19
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Copper surface roughness effects
Shown are circuits with the same substrate, but using different copper types
with different surface roughness
Circuits with rougher copper surface (higher RMS) have higher effective Dk
CONFIDENTIAL
The LCP laminate used in this study is the Rogers ULTRALAM 3850 laminate 20
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Thickness dependencies
A thinner circuit will be dominated by conductor properties for loss and phase
Conversely a thicker circuit will be less affected by copper roughness regarding the
circuit perceived effective Dk or the Rogers term of Design Dk
Example: 50 ohm microstrip transmission line circuits evaluated for Design Dk,
using the same substrate and same copper, but different thickness
4mil RO4350BTM laminate has
Design Dk = 3.95
Cross-sectional view of a thin circuit, with
exaggerated copper surface roughness
CONFIDENTIAL 22
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Thickness dependencies
CONFIDENTIAL 24
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Design Dk examples and more details
Design Dk is not a material property, it is a circuit property
Design Dk values should be used for high frequency circuit design and modeling
Once a Design Dk curve (Dk vs. Frequency curve) is defined, other Dk values can
be estimated relatively well
The RO3035
laminate is low loss;
Df of 0.0012 and
used rolled copper
with a roughness of
CONFIDENTIAL
0.3 microns RMS 26
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Design Dk examples and more details
Dk
Recall Dk-Frequency
behavior from slide 8
Df
Due to predictable Dk vs. Frequency behavior, once the slope is defined for a material at
microwave frequencies, the Dk at higher frequencies can be easily estimated
Typically the Dk vs. Frequency slope is defined from about 10 GHz up to 20 or 30 or 40 GHz
Predicted Dk values from a measured slope are usually good up to about 300 GHz
CONFIDENTIAL 27
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Design Dk examples and more details
Example: with the slope defined for 6.6mil RO4350B up to 20 GHz, the Dk can be
estimated at higher frequencies
CONFIDENTIAL 28
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Design Dk examples and more details
CONFIDENTIAL 29
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Design Dk examples and more details
What is the Design Dk tolerance for a material? There is no easy answer
Since Design Dk is thickness dependent, the tolerance can be different for the same
material but at different thickness, such as 10mils thick as compared to 20mils thick
Since Design Dk is copper surface roughness dependent, the tolerance for the same
material and same thickness, can be different when using different copper
The copper surface roughness has a normal variation associated with the copper; the
roughness variation causes Design Dk variation but its impact is thickness dependent
The substrate has a normal tolerance associated with the intrinsic Dk value
The microstrip differential phase length method used to determine Design Dk has a
normal measurement accuracy which is dependent on the above concerns
Long story made short, the Design Dk tolerance is found by testing a large amount of
circuits made from the same material, same thickness, same copper type and having
normal lot-to-lot variation associated with these materials
CONFIDENTIAL 30
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Design Dk examples and more details
Dk tolerance example using 10mil RO4350B laminate:
Substrate Dk
tolerance is 0.05
Substrate thickness
tolerance is 0.001
Copper surface
roughness can vary from
~ 2 to ~ 3 microns RMS
for oz. copper
Substrate thickness
tolerance is 0.001
Copper surface
roughness can vary from
~ 0.7 to ~ 0.9 microns
RMS for oz. copper
Circuits are:
CONFIDENTIAL 33
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Design Dk examples and more details
Phase measurements are taken on each circuit, across a wide frequency range
The microstrip phase response formula is modified to account for the two circuits of
different length
Using MWI-2016 or a field solver, combined with inputted circuit dimensions, the Dk of the
material at that specific frequency is found by a convergence of the modeled effective Dk to
the measured effective dielectric constant
The frequency is incremented and the procedure is performed again repetitively to get a Dk
vs. frequency curve
CONFIDENTIAL 34
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Design Dk examples and more details
Extremely wideband
Dk vs. Frequency
CONFIDENTIAL 35
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Design Dk examples and more details
The Design Dk values can be used as approximate values for Grounded Coplanar
Waveguide (GCPW) circuits
Tightly coupled GCPW will have lower Design Dk due to less roughness effect
Design Dk will be relatively accurate for moderately and loosely coupled GCPW
Design Dk values can be used for stripline, however there are more variables to consider
Very often the prepreg used to bond layers together will have a different intrinsic
Dk value than the laminate
The Design Dk value used for the prepreg can be complicated by how the prepreg is
used
If the prepreg is used between two blank cores, there is no copper influence
so the Design Dk of the prepreg would be the intrinsic Dk value of the material
If the prepreg is used with only copper on one side then the Design Dk value
needs to be adjusted some, because Design Dk assumes copper on 2 sides
CONFIDENTIAL 37
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Design Dk examples and more details
A core construction can be different than a foil lam construction for copper roughness effects
4 copper-substrate interfaces Core construction
CONFIDENTIAL 38
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
CONFIDENTIAL 39
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Where to find Design Dk information
For some high volume Rogers circuit materials we have a Design Reference
For Rogers materials where less Design Dk measurements have been made,
we can still offer educated estimates which should be helpful
Example on the following pages are from the Design Reference for RO4350B
(RO4835) and RO4350B LoPro (RO4835 LoPro) laminates
CONFIDENTIAL 40
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Where to find Design Dk information
Laminates:
RO4350BTM
RO4350B LoPro
RO4835TM
RO4835 LoPro
CONFIDENTIAL 41
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Where to find Design Dk information
These Design Dk values are typically used for determining characteristic impedance for PCBs
It is considered a wideband Design Dk and not frequency dependent
These values are used for time domain applications
Example of conductor width differences between RO4350B and RO4350B LoPro materials
CONFIDENTIAL 42
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Where to find Design Dk information
CONFIDENTIAL 43
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Where to find Design Dk information
Select the desired material, thickness and frequency, then the Design Dk will be shown
This is an example of
Design Dk for a
frequency dependent
application at 3 GHz
Use RF Design
Design Dk Dk values
CONFIDENTIAL 44
Critical Aspects of Dielectric Constant Properties for
High Frequency Circuit Design
Where to find Design Dk information
Select the desired material and thickness, then the Design Dk will be shown
This is an example of
Design Dk for
determining
characteristic
impedance or for a
digital or wideband
application
Microwave Impedance
Calculator
Engineering Support
Technical Papers
www.rogerscorp.com/techub
RO3003, RO3006, RO3010, RO3203, RO3206, RO3035, RO4350B, RO4835, LoPro, ULTRALAM, CLTE-XT
and the Rogers' logo are trademarks of Rogers Corporation or one of its subsidiaries
CONFIDENTIAL 46