Panasonic as commercialized a halogen-free, ultra-low transmission loss, multi-layer circuit board material, called Halogen-free MEGTRON6, suited for communications infrastructure equipment such as fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication systems.

The company will start production of the new material in April 2019.

Multi-layer circuit board material used as a key component in equipment such as servers and routers that support core systems for communications networks will require halogen-free material from the viewpoint of environmental protection, not to mention high-capacity and high-speed data transmission. Panasonic says its new halogen-free material shows low transmission loss, high heat resistance, and high reliability, based on the company's proprietary resin design technology and compounding technology.

MEGTRON6 multi-layer circuit board material has the following features:

• Dielectric constant (Dk) = 3.4 (12 GHz), Panasonic's conventional products 3.4 (12 GHz)
• Dissipation factor (Df) = 0.003 (12 GHz), Panasonic's conventional products 0.004 (12 GHz)
• Reflow heat resistance: 10 cycles Pass (260 ℃, 32 layers); Panasonic's conventional products 28 layers 10 cycles
• Insulation reliability: 1000 hours Pass (85 ℃, humidity 85 %, 50 V); Panasonic's conventional products
• Thermal expansion coefficient (thickness direction) 39 ppm; Panasonic's conventional products 45 ppm
• Glass transition temperature (Tg)[5]: 250 ℃/DMA, Thermal decomposition temperature (Td) 435 ℃; Panasonic's conventional products Tg 210 ℃/DMA, Td 410 ℃
• The halogen-free material employed improves ease of manufacturing and processing of multi-layer circuit boards with over 20 layers.