PCB Base Materials. Common

[mnpebm]

I am looking for suggestions for base materials that might be considered readily available from PCB fabricators, specifically for use in high-speed memory/processor based designs. I just need a starting point, in which to try. There is such a bewildering number of base materials often with names I can't correlate with others that may be similar.

I have no special temperature requirements.

On a related question, is it always necessary to spec a low Dk (~4) for these types of designs?

[mairomaster]

Standard FR4 will work well for you in most of the cases. In my experience the two most common materials seem to be:

VT47-1080
VT47-106

The constant seem to vary between 4.0 - 4.6 or something like that, but it doesn't really matter if the remaining properties of your stack are alright.

[robertferanec]

Hello mnpebm. I would like to add some examples. Some time ago I created a post with the stackups which we manufacture in different PCB factories and they do not have problems with materials. In some of the examples you can see the exact material. I hope this helps. Here is the post: Download PCB Stackups – Free for your Projects