Woven Reinforcement
Glass fabric styles engineered with flattened yarn bundles provide uniform dielectric thickness across printed circuit board laminates. Standard woven glass specifications present pronounced windows between intersecting warp and fill yarns where resin collects in higher concentrations. Incorporating 2116 spread glass into prepreg systems reduces localized dielectric constant fluctuations by spreading individual glass filaments into a flat ribbon structure.
The mechanical boundary of this material specification covers medium-thickness prepreg plies used primarily in high-speed digital designs where differential skew requires homogenous dielectric distribution.
Filament Restructuring
Chemical or mechanical spreading treatments force the twisted glass fibers out of their tight cylindrical bundles to form a uniform plane before resin impregnation. Standard glass weaves leave resin-rich pockets at the interstices of warp and fill threads that create localized impedance variations along signal traces. Processing 2116 spread glass eliminates these resin-rich zones, reducing signal timing differences between differential trace pairs routed over varying glass-to-resin ratios.
Tensile strength along warp and fill axes remains intact during fabric spreading, maintaining dimensional stability throughout multiaxial lamination cycles. Fabrication facilities monitor yarn pitch and fiber distribution under optical inspection to verify that gaps between filaments do not exceed established weave tolerances.
Microvia Interaction
High-density interconnect designs depend on consistent laser ablation rates through resin and glass reinforcement during microvia drilling. Non-uniform fiber density causes laser energy to clear resin rapidly while failing to cut dense glass bundles cleanly. Utilizing 2116 spread glass prevents irregular hole wall topography and wedge voiding by presenting a continuous glass density to ultraviolet laser drills.
Drilling parameters calibrated for spread fabric achieve uniform taper angles without tearing individual filaments.
