Hello everyone,
I am working on the design and fabrication of a butler matrix connected to an array antenna. The structure operates at 3GHz.
In fact, during the design, I did not include any additional layers for solder mask neither surface finish. I have already outsourced the fabrication of the structure. Now the company is asking me if they need to add solder mask and surface finish.
The questions that I do have are the following:
- What is the main difference between the solder mask and the surface finish? Is it possible to use only surface finish?
-Do they protect against oxidation only? Or oxidation and corrosion?
-What is the impact of the oxidation on the antenna performance? ( resonant frequency and gain)
-Does the surface finish have any impact on the antenna performance in case it was not already considered in the simulations?
Thank you very much for your support,
Best regards
You need to consider the masking material and consider changes in the physical structure of the antenna due to corrosion. because corrosion gives changes to the material structure and dimensions of anethene which causes changes in the resonant frequency point.
In the context of the roughness and imperfect smoothing of the antenna surface, it must be said that this depends on the frequency of the signals. Peak roughness values should be less than 0.1 wavelengths. But imperfect smoothing of the antenna surface gives a good start point to future corrosion and accumulation of dust and dirt.
- Badges
- Science topic