How to prototype RF circuit boards ??

wainwright circuit prototype

Learn how to make circuit boards at home. I use pre-sensitised Kingston PCB and UV lightbox. Really good results down to 5 thou.

CharlieTheTuttle

rf circuit board prototype

Ok this is what you need to do:

1.Take a copper pcb board and use it as a common ground plane (all circuit grounds connected to this)
2. Take another copper pcb (get some cheap FR4) and cut it in thin strips where you can use them as transmission lines (at your frequencies you should not worry much) over the ground plane (glue them on top of your ground plane)
3. If you are careful enough you can use this technique over 1GHz but if you go high in frequency you have to be more precise with the use of the strips as transmission lines (thikness of dielectric width of the strips etc)

Regards
Cross

minimounts wainright

This method works quite well where impedances are low, like in high power amplifiers and the like. It's much harder for things like VCOs where the capacitance of the pad becomes critical to simulation/implementation phase.

Regards
CharlieTheTuttle

wmm gmbh

no wonder i dont do
RF.angle reflections
interesting

prototype rf circuits ground plane

Buy a few small shallow trays, some double sided 1/2 oz FR4 and some ferric chloride. Do a microstrip design, where you need vias, use a 0.6mm hole, cut some leaded resistor legs, push them through and cut them, solder them and there you have it. You an get some stick on development sheets to transfer your design to the PCB. FR4 can be used to well above 5Ghz but losses are huge. Rogers corp make loads of high frequeny materials for designs >20Ghz if needed. Rogers 4003C can be used from dc to 30GHZ and can be processed in the same fassion as fr4.
I know that you can design RF pcb's like this. for prototypes i use a lpkf router ($20,000) but still gives the same results as the ferric chloride method if you are careful. If anyone says you cannot do this they are not trying hard enough. I have used this to do DRO's at >10GHZ so wiggly dc < 5Ghz is a breeze.
You can get very cheap pcb done professionally for around $50 for a euro card size on FR4.
Rogers will send you a sample if you give them the sales talk (bogus company) otherwise they will send to a uni or college.

regards Bagster

diy rf circuit boards

Be aware if you use different PCB types FR4 and Rogers have different Er (Epsolon relative) the Electrical length (phase) will be different, this is not important at these frequensies but starts to get important at higher frequensies or if you design for "a quarter wavelength" because it is not the same length if Er is not the same.

You get PCB's with Er in the range 3 to 10 and very special PCB's outside this range.

Regards

prototyping rf

wo kao! i am very tired to reply the similar topic.I am not that experienced in rf prototyping, but I read somewhere that you want to stay away from sharp angles in your traces in the Cu boards.

prototype pcb with ground plane

In advance,use VHDL to extract code from protel PCB,then build CAD in matlab,at last analysis it in HFSS or other electromagnetic tools.

With its unique precision, the ProtoMat S100 is particularly suitable for machining soft and flexible substrates with sensitive surfaces.

Hallo evrybody,

I finded so 2 weeks agog for a source of "mini-mounts", and finded out, that the old firm
"Wainwright Mini-Mount GmbH, Andex, Bavaria"
dont exist -jet over a year...
The good knowed phone number is jet privat!:-(

Dos evreybody over an source for mini-mounts
or some similra products please?

tnx in advance!
K.