E-NEWSLETTER l RF / Microwave
May 2022
A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO

RF Is The Future

LED lighting, remote controls, heat control. Coefficient of thermal management coordination of chips to dielectrics. The role of RF technology, especially RF Microwave technology, has risen to the very top of the technology ladder when it comes to importance.

Our team at ASC has been working on RF and RF microwave technology from “before it was cool”, pun intended. Our experts have helped literally hundreds of companies with all of their EF needs, working with them to help design the best and most heat efficient PCBs in the world.

Not to brag but this is a technology that we literally own! 

In this month’s newsletter we talk about material selection for RF Microwave PCBs and we have two new 77 Second Webinars on Loss Tangent and Dielectric Constant.

And best of all if you don’t find what you need here you can go right to our web site and not only check out our experts  page on the subject, you can reach out to our special expert John Bushie who will be happy to help you with any issues and challenges and questions you might have.

And since we wrote the book on the subject of RF technology, you can download your own free copy of The Printed Circuits Designers’ Guide to the Fundamentals of RF/Microwave PCBs

Enjoy this newsletter and make sure you visit our website as well.

And as always, thank you for your business.

Sincerely,

Anaya Vardya
President and CEO
American Standard Circuits
PCB Designers Toolbox Webinar Series

New Webinar Series For PCB Design Professionals
ASC is starting a new live monthly webinar series which will also be available on demand after the live session. We will cover various aspects of PCB Manufacturing and their interaction with the PCB Design process. We will be providing helpful suggestions on improving your design for manufacturability and cost effective solutions. We will also expose you to new technologies that may be useful to you. Currently we have three of these webinars available on demand an the ASC website, with this fourth one scheduled soon


June 15th, 11am CDT

  • What are best practices for documentation of Flex and Rigid-Flex PCBs?
  • What are the common mistakes to be avoided?

RF Microwave Material Selection

When discussing the right choice for materials to use in designs, today’s engineers are much more knowledgeable than they were during the early years of RF PCB technology. At that time, there were only a couple flavors of low-loss Teflon materials, and most of them contained the word Duroid. Today, there are literally dozens of controlled-Dk and low-loss materials available on the market, many of which contain proprietary resin systems that allow the PCB fabricator to manufacture them using similar processes to standard FR-4 materials.

Two Key RF Microwave Material Parameters 
RF and microwave circuits usually process precision and/or low-level signal transmissions. This means that these circuits require much tighter control of parameters pertaining to signal losses. The two greatest concerns are losses caused by signal reflections due to impedance mismatch, and the loss of signal energy into the dielectric of the material. Material choice (laminate and copper) can have a major impact on all these sources of energy loss. As a result, materials geared to the RF arena tightly control the two key parameters of loss tangent and dielectric constant. 

See below for this month’s two new 77 Second Webinars on Loss Tangent & Dielectric Constant.

And for more information on RF Microwave design considerations, download our "Fundamentals of RF/Microwave PCBs" Ebook at the links below.
Our Latest 77 Second Webinars
View our latest 77 second videos that discuss microstrip and coplanar construction.

This month: key RF Material Parameters
Our Free E-Books:
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Flex and Rigid-Flex Fundamantals

Fundamentals of RF/Microwave PCBs

PCB Fundamentals

Thermal Management: A Fabricators Perspective                 
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