<P> The European Union bans the use of lead (among other heavy metals) in consumer items, a piece of legislature called the RoHS, for Restriction of Hazardous Substances, directive . PCBs to be sold in the EU must be RoHS - compliant, meaning that all manufacturing processes must not involve the use of lead, all solder used must be lead - free, and all components mounted on the board must be free of lead, mercury, cadmium, and other heavy metals . </P> <P> Laminates are manufactured by curing under pressure and temperature layers of cloth or paper with thermoset resin to form an integral final piece of uniform thickness . The size can be up to 4 by 8 feet (1.2 by 2.4 m) in width and length . Varying cloth weaves (threads per inch or cm), cloth thickness, and resin percentage are used to achieve the desired final thickness and dielectric characteristics . Available standard laminate thickness are listed in ANSI / IPC - D - 275 . </P> <P> The cloth or fiber material used, resin material, and the cloth to resin ratio determine the laminate's type designation (FR - 4, CEM - 1, G - 10, etc .) and therefore the characteristics of the laminate produced . Important characteristics are the level to which the laminate is fire retardant, the dielectric constant (e), the loss factor (tδ), the tensile strength, the shear strength, the glass transition temperature (T), and the Z - axis expansion coefficient (how much the thickness changes with temperature). </P> <P> There are quite a few different dielectrics that can be chosen to provide different insulating values depending on the requirements of the circuit . Some of these dielectrics are polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), FR - 4, FR - 1, CEM - 1 or CEM - 3 . Well known pre-preg materials used in the PCB industry are FR - 2 (phenolic cotton paper), FR - 3 (cotton paper and epoxy), FR - 4 (woven glass and epoxy), FR - 5 (woven glass and epoxy), FR - 6 (matte glass and polyester), G - 10 (woven glass and epoxy), CEM - 1 (cotton paper and epoxy), CEM - 2 (cotton paper and epoxy), CEM - 3 (non-woven glass and epoxy), CEM - 4 (woven glass and epoxy), CEM - 5 (woven glass and polyester). Thermal expansion is an important consideration especially with ball grid array (BGA) and naked die technologies, and glass fiber offers the best dimensional stability . </P>

Difference between printed circuit board and integrated circuit