What Circuit Boards Do We Do in RF Field?RF PCB Brands,Rogers RF PCB,Wangling RF PCB,Taconic TLX,TLY

Introduction

Bicheng PCB, established in 2003, has been a leading supplier and exporter of high-frequency PCBs in Shenzhen, China. We have been serving various industries for over 19 years, including cellular base station antennas, high-frequency passive components, microstrip and band line circuits, millimeter-wave equipment, radar systems, and digital radio frequency antennas.

Our high-frequency PCBs primarily utilize three prominent material brands: Rogers Corporation, Taconic, and China Wangling. These materials offer a range of dielectric constants from 2.2 to 10.2, ensuring diverse options for our customers.

RF PCB Brands
Now, let's take a closer look at the materials we use, although this list is not exhaustive. Each brand consists of different series of products.

Starting with Rogers, we have the RO3000 series, RO4000 series, RT/duroid 5000 series, and RT/duroid 6000 series. Additionally, we offer the AD series, DiClad, CuClad, and TMM series to meet various requirements.

Taconic provides the TLX series, RF series, and TLY series, which include materials suitable for base station antennas (such as TLX-8 and RF-30), satellite communication terminal antennas (RF-10), high-power and miniaturized amplifiers (RF-35 and RF-60), and millimeter-wave RF backplanes (TLY-5Z), among others.

Wangling, a well-established brand with 38 years of experience, offers alternative and competitive RF materials for aerospace, aviation, satellite communication, navigation and radar, electronic countermeasures, and 4G and 5G communication. The main product lines include F4B (PTFE) and composite dielectric substrates.

Rogers RF PCB
Now, let's delve into the detailed properties of each Rogers material.

The RO3000 Series laminates are ceramic-filled PTFE composites that offer consistent mechanical properties and electrical stability, regardless of the selected dielectric constant (DK) value. This allows designers to develop multi-layer board designs using different dielectric materials for individual layers without encountering warpage or reliability issues. The RO3000 series also exhibits stable DK values over a wide temperature range, making them suitable for commercial microwave and RF applications.

Rogers RO4000 Series materials are woven glass reinforced hydrocarbon ceramic laminates. They provide well-controlled dielectric constants with a wide range of options (2.55-6.15). These materials offer above-average thermal conductivity (0.6-0.8W/mK), low Z-axis coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) for reliable plated through-hole connections, and optimized cost and RF/microwave performance, making them attractive to the market.

Rogers RT/duroid high-frequency circuit materials consist of the 5000 series and 6000 series. These random glass or ceramic-filled PTFE composite laminates are designed for high reliability aerospace and defense applications, with a long history of providing superior performance. They feature low electrical loss, low moisture absorption, low outgassing (suitable for space applications), and stable DK values over a wide frequency range.

The AD series and CLTE series from Rogers present low dielectric constant values, ranging from 2.5 to 3, except for AD1000, which has a DK of 10.2.

CuClad, DiClad, and IsoClad laminates from Rogers feature much lower dielectric constants (DK) ranging from 2.17 to 2.40, lower electrical loss (tan δ) ranging from 0.0009 to 0.0018 at X-band frequencies, and lower moisture absorption.

The TC series from Rogers consists of woven glass reinforced PTFE ceramic composites with higher thermal conductivity. These materials provide higher power handling, reduce hot spots, improve device reliability, and lower operating temperatures in high-power applications. They offer stable DK values across a wide temperature range, low loss tangent of 0.002 at 10 GHz, and low coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) in the X, Y, and Z axes.

Rogers TMM series are hydrocarbon ceramic thermoset microwave laminates that combine exceptionally low thermal coefficient of dielectric constant (TCDk), a wide range of DK options, copper-matched CTE, and dielectric constant uniformity. TMM materials exhibit excellent electrical and mechanical stability, resist creep and cold flow, and are ideal for strip-line and micro-strip applications that require high reliability.

Taconic RF PCB

Now let's move on to Taconic materials.

Taconic offers high-frequency materials based on ceramic-filled PTFE, woven-glass reinforced PTFE, and thermoset resin, among others.

The TLX series from Taconic is versatile, with a DK range of 2.45 to 2.65, low dissipation factor, low water absorption, and CTE values close to copper. These materials ensure reliability in a wide range of RF applications.

RF-10, RF-60TC, and CER-10 are Taconic's high DK materials, which are beneficial for circuit size design. The "TC" materials provide good thermal management, with RF-35TC having a thermal conductivity of 0.95 W/mK and RF-60TC having a thermal conductivity of 1.05 W/mK.

The TLY series from Taconic is manufactured with lightweight woven fiberglass and offers high dimensional stability. The very low DK and low dissipation factor make these materials suitable for automotive radar applications designed at 77 GHz, as well as other millimeter-wave antennas.

Wangling RF PCB
Lastly, let's explore the details of Wangling materials.

Wangling offers a wide range of high-frequency materials, including custom-made options. They continually enhance material structures to meet market demands. Here are some of their most commonly used materials in the industry.

The F4B series includes F4B-1/2, which is manufactured with excellent materials to meet the requirements of microwave circuits in terms of electrical performance. It features excellent electrical performance and higher mechanical strength.

F4BME-1/2 is laminated with fiberglass and PTFE, featuring a DK range of 2.17 to 3.0 and a high dielectric thickness of up to 12 mm.

F4BMX-1/2 is fabricated with woven glass fabric and PTFE, offering a wide range of dielectric constants with lower dissipation factor and higher resistance compared to the previous two materials.

F4BME-2-A is manufactured with woven glass fabric and PTFE materials filled with nano-ceramic materials. It provides stable surface resistivity and enhanced PIM (PassiveIntermodulation) value compared to F4BME-1/2.

F4BTME-1/2 is laminated with varnished glass and PTFE resin filled with nano-ceramic materials. It utilizes low roughness copper foil and improves heat dissipation while maintaining lower thermal expansion in the X, Y, and Z axes.

The TP and TF series from Wangling are high DK materials, with dielectric constants that can be as high as 22. TP materials are composites of ceramics, while TF materials are composites of PTFE. These materials exhibit CTE values in the X and Y axes similar to copper, providing excellent dimensional stability. They also have low water absorption.

WL-CT series materials from Wangling are made of organic polymer, ceramic filler, and glass fiber. They are thermoset materials with a wide range of DK values and low dissipation factor. The WL-CT materials offer a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) in the X and Y axes of 13-17 ppm/℃, matching that of copper for excellent dimensional stability. The Z-axis CTE is 31-50 ppm/℃, ensuring exceptional plated through-hole reliability even in severe thermal environments.

RF PCB Show
What do these printed circuit boards look like?
Here we go.

PCB Capability (RF PCB)
For high frequency PCBs, we can provide you with single layer board, double layer board, multi-layer board and hybrid types. PCB outline can be mechanically routed or laser cut, especially for the 5mil or 10mil thin laminates.

Vias can be tented by solder mask or plugged by resin and capped on the surface. They also can be blinded and buried in the multilayer build-up. Finished copper on board is often go with 1oz and 2oz.

Our maximum PCB size on high frequency materials is 400mm by 500mm, it can be a single board in the sheet and also can be different designs in this panel. Solder mask of green, black, blue, red and yellow etc is available in house.

All final metal surface options, such as immersion gold, HASL, immersion silver and immersion tin etc. have been successfully applied to the surface SMD pads.

Conclusion
When ordering a high frequency PCB, it is important to specify the basic specifications as mentioned above, especially the material designation, dielectric thickness, copper weight, surface finishes and stack-up information if they are multi-layer PCB.

Well, thank you so much for your time to read till the end. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. See you next time.