You need to look beyond the statements of most PCB manufacturers to offer the best of services and begin concentrating on the extent of those services. When it comes to PCB manufacturing, one of the things you want to check is the company’s capabilities and experience in manufacturing a certain type of board.
The processes of choosing an Isola PCB Manufacturer are a bit complex, consider this is a type of advanced circuit board. This article inspires you with ideas on how to pick the best manufacturing company for your Isola circuit board.
What is Isola PCB?
Let us start by talking about the company behind it. Isola is a leading manufacturer of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) meant for advanced uses.
Established in 1912, the company started with the production of insulation materials and would graduate to phenolic-paper laminates and copper-clad laminates in 1956. Then, in 1996, the company solidified the place in the market with the launch of the FR406, which became an industry-changing high Tg FR-4 laminate/material.
Today, Isola is vested in the production of advanced PCB materials, as well as engaging in the business of designing, developing and qualifying anything from dielectric prepregs and copper-clad laminates.
These laminates and prepregs are dedicated to one purpose – they are used for the fabrication of multilayered Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs).
Isola’s Products
The Isola Group manufactures and distributes two kinds of products – PCB laminates and PCB prepreg materials. These materials and laminates are optimized for the highest levels of performance while offering the range of proprietary resin formulations designed to meet the design expectations of the consumers.
Here is an analysis of some of the company’s products:
Tachyon 100G
This is an ultra-low loss laminate and prepreg. This is your best pick for the high-speed digital applications and this is because of the prepreg’s capability to reach up to 100 gigabytes per second.
The following are additional attributes of the Isola Tachyon 100G prepreg:
- High density interconnect
- Higher thermal reliability
- It exhibits an exceptional electrical property, capable of keeping the prepreg stable even when used in up to 125-degree operating temperature.
- It offers a significant reduction in the conductor losses
- Reduce jitter
- Skew mitigation and;
- Improved rise times
TerraGreen (RF/MW)
This is also a very low loss laminate and halogen-free laminate but unlike the Tachyon 100G, it is designated for use with the high-power applications, such as the amplifier boards for Internet infrastructure, LTE base stations and cloud computing.
The TerraGreen laminate is also usable in the automotive/transportation, Radio Frequency and Microwave (RF/MW) and the aerospace and defense industries.
The following are some of its attributes:
- High thermal reliability
- It uses a lead-free assembly material.
- Halogen-free
- Compatible with Isola’s FR-materials for hybrid designs.
- Utilizes a short-lamination cycle and;
- Offers easy drilling.
Isola also manufactures several other products, including the following:
- I-TERA MT40
- IS680 AG
- I-SPEED
- FR408HR
- 370HR and;
- IS550H
Why Isola PCB is the Best
No doubt that many manufacturers have developed unique solutions when it comes to the production of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs).
However, a couple of factors set the Isola Group ahead of many companies. Here are some of the reasons why the company is getting the kind of recognition it gets these days:
1. Excellent PCB Testing
You will agree that circuit boards perform better when they are fully-optimized for the specific applications. Likewise, the performance of these PCBs lag when the optimizations are not fully done – or in the right way.
Testing these boards before shipping is an opportunity to determine the capabilities. It is for this reason that the Isola Group developed an advanced testing function for PCBs. Called the Analytical Services, it offers state-of-the-art and industry-leading facilities for the testing, evaluation and real-time support of PCB capabilities.
Here are additional pieces of information about how these testing functions make all the difference:
2. Testing
The PCBs are subjected to in-depth testing. The Isola Group lab team is on-hand to use advanced PCB industry testing functions to validate the performance of these boards.
The tests are carried out across the following:
- Circuit board laminate materials
- Conducting of tests on the mechanical, electrical and thermal characterizations of the resin, copper and glass components of the PCBs.
3. Research and Development
The lab team also helps to make groundbreaking research and development of newer solutions to be used when improving the performance of PCBs.
How to Choose Your Isola PCB Manufacturer
Now that we are clear about what the range of Isola PCBs have to offer, let us now talk about how to choose the best designing company for the job.
These tips should help you pick the best Isola PCB manufacturer:
1. Extensive Manufacturing Service
It makes sense if the Isola PCB designer/manufacturer can offer manufacturing services for as many products/laminates or PCB materials that the Isola Group manufactures. This way, you are sure of keeping every concept of the job under one roof.
2. Possession of the Industry-Related Certifications
The Isola Group has done a great job of integrating and modifying the wide range of PCB laminates and prepregs in accordance with the industry standards.
These products have a wide range of certifications, including but not limited to RoHS, ISO, UL and REACH.
It is therefore imperative that the Isola PCB manufacturing company you want to hire to work on your Isola circuit board has the similar certifications or qualifications. That way, you can be sure that the company understands the peculiarities associated with working on such PCBs.
3. The Familiarity with Isola PCB Technologies
The Isola Group has developed a wide range of technological approaches to optimizing the circuit boards. Thus, your favorite Isola PCB company should be familiar with how to use these technologies to improve the performance of the boards.
One major technology to look out for is the IsoDesign Tools. It is a set of tools and laid-down procedures, covering the stackup visualization, thickness measurement guidelines and the necessary prepreg layer structures for the PCBs.
Wrapping Up
Hillman Curtis is a reliable Isola PCB manufacturer. Our years of experience in manufacturing multilayered circuit boards come in handy to improve the optimizations of your Isola PCB for the automotive, aerospace, networking & communications, as well as consumer electronics applications.
