On HF Circuit Board and Cov-19: Most Professional Post

A hot viral Facebook video on May 14 in which a man claims to be a 5G installer holding a circuit board labeled COV.19  turned out to be false. But here are two things to be explained from the perspective of a professional electronic engineer:

1. what should the circuit board used in the 5G tower look like?

2. what does COV.19 (if any) mean on a circuit board?

RATING: The video contains incorrect information. The circuit board shown comes from an old TV receiver. The inscription COV. 19 is not authentic according to the printed circuit board manufacturer.

Part 1: Is the Circuit Board Labeled COV.19 Found in a 5G Tower?

First, let us go through the fake video briefly.

The new 5G mobile radio standard is repeatedly associated with the spread of the coronavirus via Cov 19 circuit board. In a video that is currently frequently shared on Facebook, a man presents a circuit board with the inscription COV 19, which he says should be attached to a 5G mast.

FACTS: 1. The board we use for 5G is the high-frequency circuit board, not the simple one in the video. 2. According to a company spokesman, the COV 19 circuit board is also not authentic - It is a circuit board from a very old set-top television box that never contained components that were labeled, stamped, printed, or similar to COV 19.

Part 2: What Should Be the Board Used for 5G Communication?

So the so-called COV 19 circuit board in the video is not used for 5G. What should be the real 5G circuit board?

The circuit board for 5G communication is the high-frequency printed circuit board (HF PCB). HF PCB can be classified into two types based on the material - the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and the non-PTFE/ceramic. The most famous brands of high-frequency boards include Rogers, Taconic, Arlon, Nelcon, and Taizhou Wangling. Teflon is the trade name of the base material PTFE.

Usually, a high-frequency circuit board has a much higher circuit density than normal boards, and it has bright and uniform coloring. However, we distinguish high-frequency PCBs mainly according to their characteristics.

High-frequency PCB has high frequency, high speed, good electrical, and improved semiconductor characteristics. Its good impedance control ensures clean signals between the components. These advanced features make HF PCB necessary for base stations for transmitting and receiving 5G radio waves, 5G smartphones, various monitoring sensors for realizing smart cities, and radars for autonomous driving.

HF PCB often with multiple layers of insulating layers and pattern layers and has specifications for an ultra-high density layer board. It is independent in RF modules installed in 5G smartphones and surveillance sensors.

HF PCB has such high performances and is often expensive, and here comes a question.

I am an engineer, where can I buy a cheap high-frequency PCB board for 5G?

You can get quality high-frequency PCBs from PCBONLINE, a professional HF circuit board supplier, at a reasonable price. Engineers can order online for HF PCB manufacturing/assembly/design, components, and even the one-stop service including the final product assembly from PCBONLNE.

You can get to know the tech specifications of the HF PCB manufactured by PCBONLINE below.

Common stock sheet and parameters:<

To order HF PCB, you can click here to get a quote, or you can send emails to info@pcbonline.com to contact us for more information.

Part 3: Does 5G Have Any Concern with the Covid 19?

No.

The coronavirus is neither related to mobile communications in general nor to the new 5G transmission standard. The radiation from mobile devices or transmission towers below the limit values has now been well researched, and according to the research, there is no reason for concern.

5G denotes the fifth generation of mobile communications. It develops the previous standards 2G (GSM), 3G (UMTS), and 4G (LTE). The 5G standard enables a latency of less than one millisecond. It is faster than blinking an eye. At the same time, the technology enables data rates of up to ten gigabits per second. That is at least ten times the peak performance of the previous 4G standard.

5G communication has also dramatically improved three functions: high speed and large capacity, low signal delay, and simultaneous connection of multiple terminals.

Another important performance feature of 5G technology is the expanded use of MIMO antenna technology. The optimized implementation of beamforming technology for more direct transmission of the signals to the individual end-users and network slicing as an intelligent allocation of resources depending on the services and applications provided.

How fast is 5G?

The switch to 5G technology and the related breakthrough in data rates can be compared to a jump from the era of horse-drawn carriages to the era of transcontinental flights. Network operators who have tested the 5G data rate report speeds of up to 70 Gbit/s. Impressive results have also been achieved in industry-funded simulations.

Advantages of 5G

The higher data rate and shorter latency of 5G are obvious and important advantages over 4G and all previous mobile phone generations. Another system-related advantage of the 5G technology is that a much larger number of devices are supported due to the smaller dimensions and the more precise directivity of the MIMO antennas that accompany the introduction of 5G.

Thanks to the optimized network architecture of 5G, the handover of connections when the user moves from one radio cell to the next will be smoother The overall experience quality will improve because fewer data transfers are interrupted and fewer signals are lost.

Application of 5G

The 5G network has the characteristics of high speed, large capacity, and low latency. In addition to making it more convenient for ordinary people’s daily lives, 5G continues to penetrate the Internet and many industries, diversifying in communications, autonomous driving, industrial medical care, and smart homes.

Part 4: What is the meaning of the Cov-19on A Circuit Board?

As mentioned above, there is no inscription of COV. 19on the circuit board.

But usually, there are some words and numbers labeled on a circuit board by the PCB manufacturer.

Then what is the meaning of these words, numbers, or codes?

They are pasted to distinguish the mounted components. When a circuit board is manufactured, the PCB company will mount components on it, and after the assembly, we call it printed circuit board assembled (PCBA).

PCBONLINE is not only an HF PCB manufacturer but also a PCBA and components outsourcing service supplier. During the assembly, each component and the printed circuit boards are subject to tight manufacturing tolerances, which have a significant impact on the functionality and durability of the finished product.

For Engineers: Analysis for HF PCB Design, Manufacturing, and Material

The ever-smaller, faster, and more powerful devices demand new technologies - not only for components but also for printed circuit boards and the prototype manufacturing process.

There is a demand for high-speed processing of electrical signals without degrading them, and the desire for development by related manufacturers is stimulated by the reduction of transmission loss of substrate materials. In addition, the high-frequency PCB must also have certain electrical quality criteria and functional properties. This is the only way to build solid and safe devices.

Here are several factors to consider when designing and manufacturing high-frequency PCBs as below.

Rising frequencies and smaller distances between the conductor tracks inevitably lead to a greater mutual influence. Conductors running in parallel act like capacitors whose reactive resistances decrease inversely with the signal frequency. The following applies: the longer the lines run in parallel, the greater the capacity. On the other hand, there is an increase in inductance for increasingly narrow conductor tracks. The greater the capacitance and impedance, the lower the cutoff frequency. The attenuation of high frequencies is increasing more and more.

The low-pass filter that arises from this creates a more or less smoothed signal from a clean square-wave signal. In extreme cases, a fundamental sine wave remains. With Fourier analysis, any signal can be broken down into individual sine and cosine oscillations. The amplitudes and phase shifts vary depending on the signal. If these individual vibrations are put together again at the end of the transmission path, the original signal should normally be generated again. However, if one or the other vibration is missing due to the low-pass behavior of the transmission link or if the amplitudes or phase positions have changed, deviations from the original signal are the mandatory consequence.

How large this deviation can depend on many factors. On the one hand, the signal input of the integrated circuit must of course process the received signal as if it were the original signal. On the other hand, two signals generated at the same time must arrive at different inputs at the same time. The signal form and the chronological sequence of the signals ultimately contain the information that is to be processed by the system.

PCBONLINE perfectly solves all the above problems and we share our experiences on the high-frequency PCB page. You can also contact us at info@pcbonline.com for more discussion.

Materials for High-Frequency Substrates

To meet the millimeter-wave region, it is necessary to reduce the dielectric loss of the insulating material. Dielectric loss is the loss of energy as heat when an AC electric field is applied to a dielectric, which causes signal deterioration. Especially in the millimeter-wave region, the influence of signal deterioration due to dielectric loss is significant, so the selection of insulating materials for printed circuit boards is important.

Fluorocarbon resin is a representative resin with low transmission loss, and Teflon/PTFE is famous. It has excellent heat resistance, humidity resistance, and chemical resistance, but it was too hard and the workability during printed circuit board manufacturing was poor.

LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer) is another material that has low transmission loss, but it has the drawback that it has high thermoplasticity and causes defects during high-temperature processing during board manufacturing.

Panasonic's MEGTRON6 is sold as a substrate material for CCL (copper-clad laminate), and its workability during substrate manufacturing is superior to that of Teflon.

PCBONLINE has all kinds of high-frequency materials and manufacturing requirements, and if you’re interested, you can check the high-frequency PCB page to know the requirements for materials.

Conclusion

The COV 19 circuit board got popular due to false information and there is no COV-19 circuit board in the world. The correct PCB for 5G communication is the high-frequency PCB. PCBONLINE is always there for the manufacturing and assembly of the best HF PCB for 5G construction.