Application Note
Application Note: PTFE Multilayers
Downloads:•Application Note: PTFE Multilayers
PTFE Multilayers -- The Future is Now!
Does the idea of a 1.5" thick 68 layer 18" x 24" PTFE blind and buried via multilayer board with mixed bonding materials leave you quivering with fear? This is not a hypothetical instance -- the beam-forming antenna network for the Globalstar satellite system had several such monster boards in each bird! The photographs below, courtesy of Tyco Printed Circuit Group and Space Systems Loral, show one of the large modules, the SArray -- that was later assembled to make the final beam forming antenna -- and a typical cross section of a Globalstar board. The raw material cost alone in such a board would make a nice down payment on a house in Malibu, and the selling price of the final board could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. If that wasn't enough by itself, consider that this is involves multiple sequential laminations and think about the effect of multiplied yield values. Until recently it is quite possible that your laminate sales rep would be twirling his mustache while tying you to the railroad tracks, and cynically telling you that nobody has a PTFE product that can be multilayered like that.
Downloads:
•Application Note: PTFE Multilayers
