David W. Quint

Simple and accurate determination of complex permittivity and skin effect of FR4 material in gigahertz regime

In this paper, a simple and accurate measurement method of dielectric properties for printed circuit board (PCB) materials will be presented. Here a method is proposed that only requires measurement of scattering parameters for two transmission lines of different lengths etched in FR4 with identical cross-sections. Additionally, the connectors associated with these lines are readily de-embedded fiom the measurement (e.g. SMA connectors or plated-through holes (PTH)). Moreover, the conductor losses can he easily separated from the dielectric losses. Results of dielectric properties for three different types of FR4 material from varying vendors will be provided up to 8.5 GHz.