Today’s RF / microwave and millimeter wave designers are challenged more than ever with the task of achieving an optimal balance between cost and performance when selecting base materials. Key factors include precise control of dielectric thickness, dielectric constant and dissipation factor, achieving lowest tolerance within a batch as well as batch-to-batch.

If any one of these three factors is changed, variations will be seen in the performance of the circuit, such as impedance control, amplitude and phase stability.

As frequencies increase, designers are looking to very stable dielectric materials as a means of achieving optimal signal performance. This would include the designers also paying closer attention to the selection of copper foils such as VLP-2 (very low profile 2 micron), as well as uniform glass reinforcement, helping to improve overall performance and ease of PCB manufacturing