CLTE: RF & Microwave Laminate

CLTE is a ceramic powder-filled and woven micro fiberglass reinforced PTFE composite engineered to produce a stable, low water absorption laminate with a nominal Dielectric Constant of 2.98.

Arlon's proprietary formulation for CLTE® materials creates a reduced Z-direction thermal expansion (nearer to the expansion rate for copper metal), improving plated through hole reliability. It is stable during subsequent thermal cycling in process, assembly and use.

The formulation was chosen to minimize the change in er caused by the PTFE 19°C second order phase transition of the molecular structure. This temperature stable er simplifies circuit design and optimizes circuit performance in applications such as phased array antennas.

CLTE also provides higher thermal conductivity which increases the rate of heat dissipation and thus permits use of higher power in an otherwise equivalent design.

CLTE retains the low loss tangent associated with PTFE. While once required only for microwave frequencies, low loss is also of great value in reducing cross talk in high-speed digital applications and minimizes the power of consumption of a circuit design.

Features:

• Ceramic/PTFE Composite
• Low Water Absorption
• High Thermal Conductivity
• Low Loss
• Tight Dk and Thickness Tolerance

Benefits:

• Thermally Stable DK and Df
• Dimensional Stability

Typical Applications:

• Radar Manifolds
• Phased Array Antennas
• Microwave Feed Networks
• Phase Sensitive Electronic Structures
• PAs, LNAs, LNBs