Choosing the Right Material for Your RF PCB Designs

Alexander Ippich

Product Manager RF/Microwave
Isola Group

Amit Bahl

CRO
Sierra Circuits

How to pick RF PCB materials

In RF and microwave PCB designs, the base material is much more than a carrier for the connecting traces.

For transmission lines, properties like impedance, propagation delay and phase shift and attenuation are extremely critical, especially with frequencies going up.

Unlike in HSD boards however, the circuits can also form inductive and capacitive elements and even filter structures and couplers.

To get those designs performing as intended, electrical properties of the used RF PCB materials need to be well understood, including changes over frequency or temperature.

This webinar will provide critical information on those material properties, so that designers can get their simulation predicting real life measurements as close as possible.

What you’ll learn:

• Key factors to consider when choosing RF PCB materials
• Fabrication challenges associated with RF PCB materials
• Comparison between PTFE and non-PTFE materials
• Best surface finishes for RF applications
• Low-loss Isola materials for radio frequency circuit boards: I-Tera MT40, and Astra MT77
• Material Selector tool demo

Meet the presenters

Alexander Ippich, Technical Director Signal Integrity and Advanced Technology, Product Manager RF/Microwave, Isola Group

Alexander Ippich, technical director signal integrity and advanced technology in the OEM marketing group is the product manager for the RF/microwave materials of Isola and a specialist for RF applications.

Previously, he worked 20 years on the PCB manufacturing side, holding various positions in the corporate technology group, application engineering and R&D.

Mr. Ippich received his ‘Diplom Engineer’ degree in Electrical Engineering from University Stuttgart, Germany.

Amit Bahl, Chief Revenue Officer at Sierra Circuits

Amit Bahl, widely recognized as the PCB Guy, currently serves as the Chief Revenue Officer at Sierra Circuits. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Engineering from UCLA in 1997, launching his career in Silicon Valley’s tech industry. In 2009, he assumed the role of Director of Sales and Marketing at Sierra Circuits, with a dedicated focus on democratizing design for manufacturing best practices and guidelines for PCB designers and engineers.

Within a short span, Amit successfully propelled Sierra Circuits to become a leading educational platform for all aspects of PCBs. Under his leadership, Sierra expanded to offer blogs, design guides, webinars, calculators and design tools, and a vibrant forum, SierraConnect. Amit remains committed to ensuring the community has access to the essential resources, whether they are developing standard products or boards with specifications for medtech or military applications.

Assuming the position of Chief Revenue Officer since 2022, Amit’s mission persists: to simplify the PCB design journey for all stakeholders. His unwavering dedication continues to drive Sierra Circuits as a trusted resource for the PCB design community.