The paper, “Effect of Conductor Profile on the Insertion Loss, Phase Constant, and Dispersion in Thin High-Frequency Transmission Lines,” was co-authored by Allen F. Horn III, John Reynolds, and Patricia LaFrance of Rogers Corporation and James Rautio, President of Syracuse, NY-based Sonnet Software. It offers insights and solutions on issues that have long plagued designers of thin printed-circuit boards (PCBs) – issues specifically related to the effects of conductor surface roughness on PCB performance.
The paper focused on conductor surface roughness and its effects on conductor loss and effective dielectric constant. The paper included a number of important findings including demonstrating that the actual increase in conductor loss can be substantially larger than that predicted by the two most widely used roughness factor correction models and, unexpectedly can significantly impact effective dielectric constant. In particular, conductor roughness can increase the effective dielectric constant in thin circuitry by up to 15 percent, and increase dispersion.
The DesignCon Paper Award is based on the quality, relevance, impact and originality of the written paper as well as the oral presentation. The Rogers’ paper – one of only 10 papers to win a DesignCon Paper Award at the 2010 conference – was selected by the International Engineering Consortium (IEC) and DesignCon 2010 Technical Program Committee as the winner of the Board and System Design category. By their selection, award winners are recognized as leading practitioners in semiconductor and electronic design.
In addition to the technical paper award, Rogers RO4000® LoPro™ laminates were named a DesignCon 2010 DesignVision Award finalist in the “PCB Design Tools and Technologies” category. DesignVision awards are made in recognition of innovative and visionary products for electronic design, and Rogers was the only electronic materials supplier among the finalists in this particular category.