Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency

Circuit Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)

Presented by: John Coonrod

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Agenda:
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric behavior
Dissecting insertion loss
Copper surface roughness influences
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finishes

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric behavior

D = E
D is electric displacement vector, E is electric field intensity, is complex permittivity
Specific to material considerations:
When an electric field is applied to a dielectric material, electric dipole moments are
established
The dipole moments augment the total displacement flux
Polarization (P) is due to the material properties and the related dipole moments

D = 0E + P
0 is free space permittivity
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Bold letters are

vector variables

Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric behavior

D = 0E + P
Dielectrics used in the high frequency PCB industry are typically a linear dielectric
Or P is linear with an applied E so:

P = 0 c E
c is electric susceptibility of the material
Bold letters are
vector variables

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric behavior
Finally, the displacement flux, including material effects:

D = 0E + P = 0 (1+ c) E = E
= j = 0 (1 + c)
is the real (storage) and is the imaginary (dissipative)
is associated with dielectric constant and is associated with dissipation factor (Df) of
the material
Dk = r = /0
Df = Tan() = /

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Bold letters are

vector variables

Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric behavior

Dipole displacement contributes to the Dk (r)

Molecular friction due to dipole rotation contributes to tan() or Df

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

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric behavior

Dispersion is how much the Dk will change with a change in frequency

Dipole moment relaxation is another issue which contributes to dispersion

At low radio frequencies the dipole relaxation has little effect on Dk dispersion
At microwave frequencies dipole relaxation has significant effect on dispersion

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric behavior
Frequency vs. Dk curve for a
generic dielectric material

300 GHz

1 GHz

Dipolar and related

relaxation phenomena

Low loss materials have much

less Dk-Frequency slope
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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Overview of frequency dependent dielectric behavior

Using 3 different test

methods on the same
piece of material, the
Dk-Frequency trend is
validated; the Dk
decreases with an
increase in frequency

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)

Dissecting insertion loss

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Dissecting insertion loss

T is total insertion loss

C is conductor loss
D is dielectric loss
R is radiation loss
L is leakage loss
Dielectric loss (D) is mostly due to the substrate, prepreg or soldermask
Conductor loss (C) is due to several issues related to the conductor of the circuit
Radiation loss (R) is due to many issues related to energy radiating off of the circuit
Leakage loss (L) is mostly due to electrical leakage, through the dielectric and
between conductor layers

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Dissecting insertion loss
Three circuit sets made from same material but different thicknesses
Circuit material used was RO4350B laminate
The dominate loss component can be different, for the different circuit thicknesses

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Dissecting insertion loss
Using same material of
different thicknesses and
different copper types,
thin circuits are more
impacted by difference in
conductor loss than thick
circuits

Copper with smoother

surface has lower
conductor loss
Rolled copper has
smoother surface than
standard ED copper
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RO3003 laminate is a very low loss material: typical Df @ 10 GHz is 0.001

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)

Copper surface roughness influences

Exaggerated surface roughness example

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Copper surface roughness influences
A higher Dk material will slow an electromagnetic wave

In other words
as a wave is slowed the circuit perceived effective Dk is assumed to be higher
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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Copper surface roughness influences
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

Excerpt to the right is from:

Conductor Profile Effects on the Propagation Constant of
Microstrip Transmission Lines, Allen F. Horn, III, * John
W. Reynolds* and James Rautio+
*Rogers Corporation, Lurie R&D Center, Rogers, CT 062590157 USA
+Sonnet Software,

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North Syracuse, NY 13212 USA

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Copper surface roughness influences

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
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The
LCP laminate used in this study is the Rogers ULTRALAM 3850 laminate

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Copper surface roughness influences
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

30mil RO4350B laminate has

Design Dk = 3.68
The Design Dk on the data sheet
for RO4350B laminate is 3.66
because the substrate Dk,
without copper effects (thick
substrate),
CONFIDENTIAL is 3.66

Cross-sectional view of a thick circuit

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Copper surface roughness influences

Results from using

same substrate and
copper type, however
circuits using different
substrate thicknesses

All circuits were 50

ohm microstrip
transmission lines

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Copper surface roughness influences
Results from same substrate
and thickness (5mil),
however using different
copper types which have
very different copper
surface roughness

This ED copper has an

average roughness of
1.8 microns RMS and
the rolled copper has
0.3 microns RMS

Smooth copper has less influence

on the propagation constant
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The RO3003 laminate has a nominal bulk Dk of 3.0

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)

Comparing insertion loss of different

designs and plated finishes

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish

Conductivity of pure metals

Most final plated finish is less conductive than copper
Due to this fact, when most final plated finish is added to
copper the conductor loss will increase, which increases
the insertion loss
The exception is silver
Typically the silver used in the PCB industry is applied
very thin so the skin effects benefit of silver may not be
obvious unless at very high frequencies

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish

Example: ENIG finish

on microstrip circuit

There is increased current density

at the edges of the conductor
The increased loss is due to the
current at the edges using the
metal that is less conductive

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ENIG is Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish
At conductor edge, majority of
current density is within:

Simplified thought process for

current density skin effect

copper-nickel-gold at low
microwave frequencies

nickel-gold at moderate
microwave frequencies
Gold at high microwave
frequencies

There are many other loss effects varying across this range of frequencies which complicates this simple thought exercise; Df increases with
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frequency,
copper roughness increases loss, fields concentrate more between signal plane and ground plane at higher frequencies, etc.

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish

Microstrip, final plated finish

impacts the conductor loss due to
high current density at the edge of
the conductor

Grounded coplanar waveguide

(GCPW) has fields and current
densities using 4 edges of the
ground-signal-ground conductors

Since GCPW has 4 edges using the plated finish, it will have more
conductor loss (and insertion loss) due to the finish than microstrip

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish
Bare copper vs. ENIG on Microstrip vs. GCPW

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish
Reminder: a thinner circuit is more dominated by conductor loss than a thick circuit
The added loss due to final plated finish causes additional conductor loss

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish

The increased loss due to

the final plated finish,
depends on the thickness
of the circuit

A thinner circuit will be

dominated by conductor
loss more than a thick
circuit
When final plated finish is
added to the copper it
adds to the conductor loss
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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish
A high loss (FR-4) material was used in a different study and showed little difference in insertion
loss between circuits with bare copper and circuits with ENIG plated finish
This is because the FR-4 circuit was dominated by dielectric loss and the additional conductor
loss due to ENIG was a very minor effect for the overall insertion loss

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Above charts show a comparison of 20mil FR-4 to 20mil RO4003C laminate

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish
The following slides are insertion loss curves comparing plated finish over very wideband
All circuits were 50 ohm microstrip transmission line circuits
All circuits used a thin, very low loss thin laminate: 5mil RT/duroid 6002 with rolled copper
Basic material electrical properties when tested at 10 GHz is:
Dk = 2.94
Df = 0.0012
The simple loss trend compared to copper, from least to most loss, is the following:
Immersion silver (no significant difference)
OSP
Immersion Tin
ENIPEG
ENIG
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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish

No significant difference between bare copper

circuits and circuits using immersion silver

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish

No significant difference between bare copper

circuits and circuits using OSP

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish

There is a difference in loss between these two

finishes, however experience suggests that this
immersion tin curve has slightly more loss than
expected. This curve should be considered a
worst case scenario for immersion Tin
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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish

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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)
Comparing insertion loss of different designs and plated finish

Summary of
insertion loss
curves
overlaid up to
40 GHz

The cluster of
insertion loss
curves
around
copper are
not
significantly
different
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Microwave and Millimeter-Wave High Frequency Circuit

Material Performance (up to 110 GHz)

Thank You to Enthone for their support

on the final plating finish studies

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