-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- pcb007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueThe Hole Truth: Via Integrity in an HDI World
From the drilled hole to registration across multiple sequential lamination cycles, to the quality of your copper plating, via reliability in an HDI world is becoming an ever-greater challenge. This month we look at “The Hole Truth,” from creating the “perfect” via to how you can assure via quality and reliability, the first time, every time.
In Pursuit of Perfection: Defect Reduction
For bare PCB board fabrication, defect reduction is a critical aspect of a company's bottom line profitability. In this issue, we examine how imaging, etching, and plating processes can provide information and insight into reducing defects and increasing yields.
Voices of the Industry
We take the pulse of the PCB industry by sharing insights from leading fabricators and suppliers in this month's issue. We've gathered their thoughts on the new U.S. administration, spending, the war in Ukraine, and their most pressing needs. It’s an eye-opening and enlightening look behind the curtain.
- Articles
- Columns
- Links
- Media kit
||| MENU - pcb007 Magazine
Isola Releases IS550H Material
April 26, 2021 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Nolan Johnson speaks with Michael Gay of Isola and Chris Hunrath of Insulectro about the release of their new halogen-free, high-thermal reliability material, which they hope fills the gap in the market between epoxies and polyimides.
Nolan Johnson: I understand there’s something new on the market for us to talk about. Why don’t you tell us what it is and what the application is?
Michael Gay: Quite a few years ago, the automotive industry OEMs were looking for an alternative to ceramic-based materials for high temperature applications. They wanted something that was less costly. They wanted something that would fill in the gap between typical FR-4 applications and ceramics. A consortium called The Help Project was developed with several large OEMs and other industry participants in the automotive sector who wanted to work together and develop this material. We started with about a half-dozen different candidates and then whittled it down, making comparison to products like 370HR, which is a typical FR-4 lead-free compatible material. We started doing evaluations and we came up with the product we now call IS550H.
Johnson: And this is a new product?
Gay: Yes, it’s brand new. We launched this product about four or five weeks ago. The product is manufactured in Asia. It’s really directed toward the automotive industry, but because of the properties of the material, it can actually be applied to other industries where high temperatures and high voltage CAF performance are required.
Johnson: From the automotive application perspective, how is this a response to the demands of OEMs?
Chris Hunrath: High-speed charging is an obvious area of concern, and one of the ways you accomplish that is using higher voltage. You need something with very good dielectric properties. Epoxy is good, but this material is better. Rapid charging drives this heavy copper requirement as well as the ability to make circuits and embed them in the dielectric material. With thermal performance, in the organic substrates, it has always been the domain of polyimide, with epoxies, multifunctional epoxies, and some materials in between. But there was a space between polyimide and epoxy, and we knew that polyimide doesn’t do certain things very well. It absorbs moisture, but it gets brittle as it cures. It is very decomposition resistant, but it does have some other drawbacks.
As Michael mentioned, ceramics are very good in certain applications for high temperature, but you can’t do everything you want to do in circuitry in ceramics that you can easily do with a PCB material or organic PCB material. This just gives the engineers and designers a whole lot of options when they’re designing circuits. The base resin chemistry (I don’t believe it’s proprietary) is something called benzoxazine, and it’s a newer resin system. It’s been around for a long time, but it’s newer than epoxy. The way it cross-links and the way it behaves in high temperature applications is different. It has actually been used in aircraft bodies. You’ve heard the airline industry is moving away from aluminum parts to composite parts. Well, this is the resin that is being used. Resin has to be able to flow and fill large features very well, but it also has to withstand temperature variations. Think of an aircraft on the runway vs. an aircraft in the upper atmosphere—we see some pretty wide temperature changes. This resin chemistry does all those things very well.
To read this entire interview, which appeared in the April 2021 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
The Evolution of Picosecond Laser Drilling
06/19/2025 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineIs it hard to imagine a single laser pulse reduced not only from nanoseconds to picoseconds in its pulse duration, but even to femtoseconds? Well, buckle up because it seems we are there. In this interview, Dr. Stefan Rung, technical director of laser machines at Schmoll Maschinen GmbH, traces the technology trajectory of the laser drill from the CO2 laser to cutting-edge picosecond and hybrid laser drilling systems, highlighting the benefits and limitations of each method, and demonstrating how laser innovations are shaping the future of PCB fabrication.
Day 2: More Cutting-edge Insights at the EIPC Summer Conference
06/18/2025 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007The European Institute for the PCB Community (EIPC) summer conference took place this year in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 3-4. This is the third of three articles on the conference. The other two cover Day 1’s sessions and the opening keynote speech. Below is a recap of the second day’s sessions.
Day 1: Cutting Edge Insights at the EIPC Summer Conference
06/17/2025 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007The European Institute for the PCB Community (EIPC) Summer Conference took place this year in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 3-4. This is the second of three articles on the conference. The other two cover the keynote speeches and Day 2 of the technical conference. Below is a recap of the first day’s sessions.
Preventing Surface Prep Defects and Ensuring Reliability
06/10/2025 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineIn printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication, surface preparation is a critical process that ensures strong adhesion, reliable plating, and long-term product performance. Without proper surface treatment, manufacturers may encounter defects such as delamination, poor solder mask adhesion, and plating failures. This article examines key surface preparation techniques, common defects resulting from improper processes, and real-world case studies that illustrate best practices.
RF PCB Design Tips and Tricks
05/08/2025 | Cherie Litson, EPTAC MIT CID/CID+There are many great books, videos, and information online about designing PCBs for RF circuits. A few of my favorite RF sources are Hans Rosenberg, Stephen Chavez, and Rick Hartley, but there are many more. These PCB design engineers have a very good perspective on what it takes to take an RF design from schematic concept to PCB layout.