Rogers Promotes Halogen-Free Laminates And Free Design Software at DesignCon 2011

Rogers will be presenting its Theta materials, a next-generation halogen-free laminate that addresses market needs for a lead-free assembly compatible, CAF-resistant material ideal for high-speed digital circuits. Leading PCB fabricators and OEMs have evaluated Theta laminates in some of the industry’s most challenging high-layer-count designs and it has surpassed expectations by meeting both 260°C 10X lead-free assembly conditions and successfully withstanding 0.8-mm CAF pitch conditions.

Theta materials feature a low z-axis coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of 50 ppm/°C—about 30% lower than FR-4 for reliable plated through holes (PTHs) in multilayer designs. Join Rogers at DesignCon 2011 to learn more about RoHS-compliant Theta laminates and what they offer you and your customers in your next challenging design.

The easy-to-use MWI-2010 Microwave Impedance Calculator program is available for free download from the Rogers website at www.rogerscorp.com/acm

Supplied as an executable file that will run on any Windows-compatible personal computer, the MWI-2010 software provides quick, easy calculations of key transmission-line parameters based on the use of Rogers’ extensive lines of high frequency circuit materials.

Using proven closed-form equations, the powerful program can calculate the impedance of high frequency conductors based on a variety of transmission-line technologies, including microstrip and stripline, and laminate materials. The straightforward program provides simple on-screen menus to guide users in their selections of transmission-line technology, material, material thickness, conductor thickness, and other parameters. The menus list materials as well as their relative dielectric constants, dissipation (loss) factors, thermal conductivity, and thermal coefficient of dielectric constant.