Characterization of PCB fabrication processes for a systematic and efficient design of microstrip circuits

Abstract

This paper proposes an algorithm to aid in the characterization of a printed circuit board fabrication process before the design of microstrip circuits. By accurately characterizing the electrical properties of a printed circuit board process, one can achieve a systematic and efficient design of microstrip circuits with reduced iteration cycles. The algorithm employs a mean-squared-error optimization technique while making use of de-embedded scattering parameter data from some sample microstrip transmission lines, to estimate printed circuit board electrical parameters such as the tangent loss and the relative permittivity, for a particular frequency range.