Cost-performance analysis of printed circuit boards using hybrid stackup

FR-4 sheets are widely used among electrical engineers and designers as a printed circuit board base material. However, as the data rates keep on growing, signals propagating in this media get significantly attenuated. For these designs, high-frequency laminates tend to be a more common, but costly, choice. This paper focuses on full channel signal integrity analysis of the hybrid stackup, as a way of reducing the cost. Simulations on the proposed hybrid stackup, both in frequency and time domain, illustrate a significant improvement over a standard FR-4 structure. Moreover, the results obtained from the measurements show a coherency with the simulation results, thus, proving the concept. This research gives designers the ability to control the performance on desired layers, yet still, reduce the cost with standard FR-4 on the remaining portion of the board.