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What Does FR4 Permittivity Entail?

You will understand how a prism disperses light if you have an idea of

what it is. Majority of circuit boards make use of the FR4 material as its

dielectric material because it impacts the dispersion of electrical signals.

Furthermore, dispersion is important in high-frequency and high-speed

printed circuit boards. This is because electrical pulses usually move at

various velocities on traces.

This is why when designing a printed circuit board, there is a need to

comprehend the features and properties of the FR4 material. These

include the FR4 permittivity or relative permittivity that helps in

developing the analytical models that show the behavior of the signal.

Table of Contents

Understanding FR4 Relative Permittivity and Dispersion

Dielectrics, insulators, as well as other materials feature some form of

electrical permittivity. This term defines two things:

 First is the speed whereby the electrical signals propagates via the

materials

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 Amount of charge, which a material will be able to hold at a specific

point in time

FR4 Relative Permittivity

The FR4 permittivity value usually falls between 3.8 and 4.8. On average it

falls on 4.3. However, fr4 permittivity usually depends on the substrate’s

thickness, resin content, copper foil roughness, as well as the style of the

glass weave.

Furthermore, factors such as plane and trace arrangement on the base

material of the printed circuit board helps in determining the fr4 relative

permittivity for pulses that propagate in interconnects. Likewise, the trace

geometry and fr4 relative permittivity affects the pulses that are present

on the microstrip traces or coplanar waveguides surfaces.

Therefore, you must determine the impedance and velocity of the

propagation accurately. To achieve this, your software for PCB

design must possess the stack up utility design having the data below for

precise velocity and impedance determination.

 Dielectric constant

 Flammability rating

 Standard thickness

 Temperature for glass transition

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 Strength of breakdown field

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FR4 Relative Permittivity and Reliability

The variations in the FR4 relative permittivity could raise some issues. FR4

permittivity varies with the substrate’s thickness, resin content, copper foil

roughness, as well as the style of the glass weave. The FR4 insulator’s

stability is usually subject to some deterioration when influenced by

extreme heat, high voltage, or high power. As this temperature

experiences some variation, the FR4 permittivity or dielectric

constant becomes unstable. This leads to instabilities in impedance in the

board. Furthermore, the FR4 permittivity variations pose some serious

challenges or issues when utilized for controlling the impedance boards.

Furthermore, FR4 relative permittivity is dependent on frequency and

provides values that are non-uniform in high-frequency or high-speed

board applications. Also, the circuit’s characteristics as well as board’s

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performance fluctuates when there are variations in the dielectric

constant, which aren’t preferable in all high-frequency applications.

Analyzing FR4 Relative Permittivity

The fr4 relative permittivity is a very sensitive parameter varying with

signal frequencies, texture differences, and dimensional changes, etc.

With top analysis and design tools, you can analyze the FR4 relative

permittivity variation of a PCB material with respect to varying conditions.

With these tools, you will be able to diagnose the fr4 relative permittivity

variation effects on high frequency and high speed signals.

FR4 Permittivity Dissipation

There are some limitations that go with using FR4, most especially in

the RF applications. This is because the dielectric stability of the material

may suffer during high frequencies. In addition, FR4 features a dissipation

factor that is high with extra insertion losses in microwave frequencies

falling between 1 and 15 GHz. These traces which are placed on these FR4

laminate materials experience greater significant attenuations during

radio frequencies.

Apart from this, the thickness of the fr4 affects the relative permittivity of

the circuit board as well as the required impedance matching for the radio

frequency PCBs.

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This is why some highly performing fr4 materials will provide better

reliability due to their ability to handle different lamination cycles.

Note that:

 The balancing of the FR4 permittivity with the laminate thickness

and trace width if the board isn’t easy. Moreover, using the

appropriate stack up manager may aid in producing accurate

propagation delays as well as impedance calculations.

 The measurement of the fr4 dielectric constant isn’t easy because

there are differences in the result, which depends on the

measurement method.

Limitations of Using the FR4 Material

When you use the FR4 Permittivity material in high speed printed circuit

boards, you may experience these problems.

Controlled Impedance

In contrast to the board materials of high speed, fr4 doesn’t deliver

uniform relative permittivity. Its tolerance value increases by 10%, while

the high speed board material is below 2%. Whenever in use, the

variations will bring some challenges up during the maintenance of the

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value of impedance. Therefore, this choice isn’t the best choice for the

controlled impedance circuit boards.

Temperature Stability

Using the FR4 material isn’t great for any device that experiences exposure

to extreme or high temperatures. This is because it has a relatively low Tg

value. Therefore, lead-free soldering isn’t supported because the

temperature for reflow far surpasses what the FR4 material will be able to

handle.

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Signal Losses

The dissipation factor of the FR4 permittivity material is 0.020. This

exceeds the 0.004 value meant for all high-frequency materials. So, this

will only lead to more losses in signal, thereby making it inappropriate for

the high frequency applications.

In addition, the FR4 material’s dissipation factor will increase as frequency

increases, which results in great losses.

Insulating Stability

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The FR4 material is a great insulator. However, it deteriorates when power,

voltage, or heat surpasses certain limits. This is why the material would

start conducting electricity in these situations, which causes failures.

Conclusion

The FR4 material is mostly used as a laminate material during PCB

manufacturing because of its insulation, durability, affordability, as well as

water resistance. Moreover, it isn’t the most appropriate for

high-temperature or high-frequency conditions.

However, fr4 permittivity usually depends on the substrate’s thickness,

resin content, copper foil roughness, as well as the style of the glass weave.

Furthermore, factors such as plane and trace arrangement on the base

material of the printed circuit board helps in determining the fr4 relative

permittivity for pulses that propagate in interconnects.

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