Electronic – Impedance control – PCB design help

pcb-design

I'm new to impedance control PCB design, and I got following information from a PCB manufacturer. This is their standard stack, and I'm planing to control the impedance of my design according to their specification, because it's cheaper. Is it possible to do that? When designing impedance control PCBs, should pre-pegs and core both be FR-4?

Pre-preg thickness – 1080 = 3.04 mil – 2116 = 4.67 mil – 7628 = 7.68 mil

Four-layer top layer – 18 µm copper foil (plated to 35 µm+) pre-preg – 1 x 1080 + 1 x 7628 Layer 2 & 3 – 1.0 mm FR-4 core with 35 µm/35 µm copper pre-preg – 1 x 1080 + 1 x 7628 bottom layer – 18 µm copper foil (plated to 35 µm+) 1.6 mm +/- 10%

How do I calculate εr between the top layer and the second layer using the above information?

Best Answer

You can get approximate known-impedance transmission lines by simply defining the correct trace width and dielectric height. For many designs, this approach will be perfectly fine.

But if you do that, it's not called impedance controlled. An impedance-controlled design means rather than controlling the trace width according to your gerbers, your fab shop controls for the impedance and lets the trace width vary as needed. Another way to look at it is, you give the fab vendor freedom to adjust the trace width and dielectric thickness as needed, and they take responsibility for obtaining the correct impedance.