[MOVED] Should Engineers understand about the cost? Rogers or FR4?

I have a simple but complicated question as enetitled above. Is it essential having your engineers know about the cost first then to run the designs?

I am experiencing some hard time dealing with this sometime as the trace width would be too thin down to 2mil when we narrow them down to 4 layer, but in order to make it easier to fabricate, we are asked to make it 6 layer...

In this case, which one is more commonly used ? 4 layer with 2mil/3.5mil or 6layer with 5mil/5mil ....any suggestions? I cannot really tell the difference of them in terms of pricing...

Also, for some of the frenquency that needs Rogers, but we are having hard time deciding if only the core should stay in Rogers or both prepreg and core should stay in Rogers. How do you usually make the final call when Rogers + FR4 is fine to get by, but not great...however...it is cheaper!

Any sort of opinion from anyone would be greatly appreciated in advance. :?:

Re: Should Engineers understand about the cost? Rogers or FR4?

Is it essential having your engineers know about the cost first then to run the designs?

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They should know about costs. Firstly they need to know the specification and product requirements. If you know the requirements, a PCB manufacturer can suggest a suitable PCB stackup.

E.g. 5 mil PCB structure size is moderate industry standard, 2 mil is edge of technology. This already answers the question in most cases (referring to prices, production yield, reliability...). Engineers should roughly know about it.

Rogers+multilayer (possibly hybrid) is a very special topic. Know your requirements and discuss it with one of the manufacturers that have a reputation for this product.

Re: Should Engineers understand about the cost? Rogers or FR4?

Thanks for your tips. Yes, it is a Roger Hybrid Board project. However, the thing was I was consulting with these 2 suppliers I found on the site www.pcbfinpo.com and www.pcbuniverse.com

I did not get a reply from universe yet, and finpo told me hybrid board is better for the frequency we need but slightly more cost needed than just all FR4, but cheaper than all Rogers.

Guess I will go for them and give it a shot, any experience with them anyone? Know any local shops in Toronto or Ontario?

I've had good results with Crimp Circuits in the past. I've always dealt with their US office, but their headquarters are in Toronto.

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Thanks for the tips.

It is just that I have used a few companies in the past, and ended up that they all dispatched the jobs to the same fab house in China, and the result was not pretty...

So, I will visit their site and hope they can sort out my situation