An engineering reference for every Rogers laminate — RO4000, RO3000, RT/duroid and TMM. Compare dielectric constant, loss tangent, thermal behaviour and cost, then size a 50 Ω line before you commit to a stackup.
RO4350B · Dk 3.48 · Df 0.0037
Search and filter the full Rogers high frequency catalogue. Each card carries the values you reach for first — Dk, loss tangent at 10 GHz, relative cost and the job it does best. Add any material to the comparison bench below.
Hold up to four laminates against each other. The bars scale Dk and loss so the trade-offs read at a glance — lower loss bar is better, and Dk tells you how tight your geometry will be.
The selector weighs your frequency, your priority and your production reality against the catalogue, then ranks the laminates that fit. It is a starting point for conversation, not a substitute for the datasheet.
Enter the substrate height, trace width and target frequency. The tool returns characteristic impedance, effective dielectric constant and guided wavelength using the Hammerstad–Wheeler microstrip model. Pick a material to auto-load its design Dk.
Model: single microstrip over a ground plane, copper neglected. Use as a first cut — confirm against a full 2D/3D field solver and the Rogers datasheet design Dk before fabrication.
Two numbers decide whether a board behaves at GHz frequencies. Get them right and your impedance, phase and loss budget hold across temperature and lot.
Dk sets how tightly fields couple into the substrate, which fixes your trace widths for a target impedance and slows the wave by 1/√εr. A higher Dk shrinks the circuit; a Dk that drifts with frequency or temperature smears your tuning. Rogers laminates are prized because Dk stays flat where FR4 wanders.
Df is the fraction of energy burned in the dielectric each cycle. FR4 sits near 0.02; Rogers laminates run 0.0009–0.005 — often an order of magnitude lower. Over a long RF chain those decibels compound, which is why a low-Df laminate can decide a link budget.
The thermal coefficient of Dk (TCDk) and a Z-axis CTE close to copper keep phase and plated through-holes honest across −55 °C to +125 °C. This is the quiet reason Rogers wins in radar and space, where FR4’s drift would detune a phased array.
Rogers laminates are not all built the same way. The resin system decides your drilling, plating and bonding recipe — and most of your cost.
RO4003C, RO4350B and RO4835 process like high-Tg FR4: standard drilling, no plasma or sodium etch, FR4-style multilayer bonding. This is why RO4000 is the usual on-ramp from FR4 and the most economical Rogers family.
Pure-PTFE and ceramic-PTFE laminates give the lowest loss but demand plasma or chemical hole prep, controlled drilling and dedicated bond films. More steps, tighter handling, premium price — earned when the loss budget is unforgiving.
A common production answer: one or two Rogers cores carrying the RF, bonded to FR4 for the digital and mechanical layers. You buy GHz performance only where the signal needs it and keep panel cost sane.
Below ~2 GHz with relaxed loss, FR4 often still wins. Push past it — controlled impedance at mmWave, phase-matched feeds, antennas, low-noise front ends — and a Rogers laminate stops being a cost line and becomes the reason the board works.
The fastest way to a material is the mission. These are the pairings RF teams reach for most.
Once your material and geometry are locked, send the design to a fab that runs Rogers daily — controlled impedance, hybrid stackups, mixed-Dk multilayers and mmWave tolerances.
Start your Rogers PCB at PCBSync →