PCB Types / High-Speed Digital PCB
As data rates push beyond 56Gbps PAM4 toward 112Gbps and 224Gbps, PCB materials and geometries become the limiting factor. Our high-speed digital capability pairs ultra-low-loss Megtron 6/Tachyon-100G laminates with back-drilling, HVLP copper, and precision impedance control — qualified for 800G data center and 5G infrastructure.
Technology Overview
At 56Gbps PAM4 and above, every discontinuity in the signal path — via stubs, copper roughness, glass-weave skew, impedance variations — degrades the eye diagram and increases bit error rate. High-speed digital PCB design is an exercise in managing these loss mechanisms through material selection, geometry control, and precision manufacturing.
The three pillars of high-speed PCB manufacturing are: (1) ultra-low-loss laminates with tight Dk/Df control, (2) ultra-smooth copper to reduce conductor loss from skin effect, and (3) back-drilling to remove via stubs that cause destructive resonant nulls. We combine all three with TDR-verified impedance control on every panel.
Technical Specifications
| Laminate Portfolio | Megtron 6/7/8 · Tachyon-100G · I-Tera MT40 · RO4835 · N4000-13 EP/EP SI · EM-888/EM-891 |
| Max Data Rate | 112 Gbps PAM4 (56 Gbaud); 224Gbps on evaluation |
| Dielectric Constant (Dk) | 3.02 – 3.70 across laminate portfolio |
| Dissipation Factor (Df) | As low as 0.0017 @10GHz (Tachyon-100G) |
| Number of Layers | 8 – 40+ layers; 40+L requires evaluation |
| Copper Foil | HVLP (Rz ≤1.5µm) · VLP (Rz ≤3.0µm) · RTF for non-critical layers |
| Min. Trace / Space | 3 / 3 mil (0.075 / 0.075 mm) on smooth copper |
| Impedance Control | ±5% single-ended; ±7% differential; TDR report on every panel |
| Intra-Pair Skew | ≤ ±1 ps on differential pairs (glass-weave mitigation) |
| Back-Drill | Stub removal ≤10 mil; depth tolerance ±2 mil; 100% depth-checked |
| Surface Finish | ENIG · ENEPIG · Immersion Ag · OSP |
| Quality Standard | IPC-6012 Class 3 · IATF 16949 · ISO 9001 |
Industry-standard ultra-low-loss laminate for 28-56Gbps designs. Excellent processability. Available in wide range of glass styles and resin contents. Most cost-effective entry point for high-speed digital.
Lowest-loss FR-4 compatible laminate for 112Gbps PAM4. Extremely low Dk for reduced propagation delay. Spread-glass reinforcement for superior CAF resistance and laser via compatibility.
Mid-loss option for cost-sensitive 10-25Gbps designs. Good thermal reliability at lower price point than Megtron 6. Used extensively in telecom line cards and enterprise servers.
Nelco low-loss laminate with enhanced signal integrity. Competitive alternative to Megtron for 10-28Gbps range. Good laser via performance for HDI + high-speed hybrid designs.
Manufacturing Process
Via stubs — the unused portion of a plated through-hole beyond the last connected layer — create an unterminated transmission line stub that causes destructive reflections at high frequencies. Back-drilling removes these stubs with a controlled-depth drill from the opposite side of the board, reducing the stub to a controlled length ≤10 mil.
800G switch backplane, NIC card, server motherboard
Baseband unit, fronthaul gateway, edge compute
GPU/TPU carrier, HBM interposer, PCIe 6.0 add-in card
Supercomputer node, FPGA prototyping, CXL memory
12G-SDI router, 8K video processor, HDMI 2.1 matrix
NVMe-oF controller, SAS 4.0 backplane, PCIe 5.0 SSD
Upload your high-speed design — we'll review stackup, material selection, back-drill requirements, and impedance targets. Free SI-focused DFM report within 24 hours.
Tell us data rate, preferred laminate, layer count, back-drill needs. Free DFM within 24h.