11.1.2 Dielectric Type and Board Construction

The speeds at which signals travel across the board dictates the choice of dielectric. FR-4, or equivalent, usually provides adequate performance for use with LVDS signals. If rise or fall times of LVCMOS/LVTTL signals are less than 500 ps, empirical results indicate that a material with a dielectric constant near 3.4, such as Rogers™ 4350 or Nelco N4000-13 is better suited. When the designer chooses the dielectric, there are several parameters pertaining to the board construction that can affect performance. The following set of guidelines were developed experimentally through several designs involving LVDS devices:

• Copper weight: 15 g or 1/2 oz start, plated to 30 g or 1 oz
• All exposed circuitry should be solder-plated (60/40) to 7.62 μm or 0.0003 in (minimum).
• Copper plating should be 25.4 μm or 0.001 in (minimum) in plated-through-holes.
• Solder mask over bare copper with solder hot-air leveling