PCBnew: Specify Soldermask material and dielectric in stack up manager

[Victor W]

I'm using the latest version of the PCBnew, and the new stack up manager looks amazing.

I have one request; we're building a signal critical front end board, and need to specify the Dk/Df of the solder mask layer.

Is it possible to allow users to also specify the solder mask material, and it's associated Dk/Df?

We have a design which requires a specific soldermask due to a combination of environmental requirements, soldermask dam size requirements, and also really critical RF specifications. There are a couple of options, but we've settled on one, and it would be nice to be able to communicate that to fab.

Would it be possible to add the ability to specify the "material", "Thickness", "Colour", and Er/Loss tangent for the silk layer?

Also, thank you so much for this feature. It's really, really, useful.

[Victor W (vicw)]

Sorry,

I just realized that I can specify Dk/Df, but not the actual material: I just want to be able to specify the material.

[Victor W (vicw)]

It would also be (mildly) helpful if we could stack two pre-preg layers on top of each other, and also specify their weave.

I've attached an example of a stack up that we use, which is redacted, but provides an example of what we use.

[jean-pierre charras (jp-charras)]

I just added the material choice for solder mask and silkscreen layers.

The color was already settable for silkscreen layers.

About silkscreen layers, what is the use case to specify the thickness and especially the Er/Loss tangent?
Usually there is no filled area on these layers.

I am always reluctant to add parameters that are very hard to set for most of users, or very rarely used.

[Victor W (vicw)]

Hi,

This issue appears to have been fully addressed by this build.

Application: Pcbnew
Version: (5.99.0-398-g3be1862b0), release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.64.1 OpenSSL/1.1.1b zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.1.1 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.1.1) libssh2/1.8.1 nghttp2/1.36.0
Platform: Linux 5.0.9-arch1-1-ARCH x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
    Build date: Nov 20 2019 18:09:13
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 2.24
    Boost: 1.69.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.64.1
    Compiler: GCC 8.3.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[Michael Kavanagh (michaelkavanagh)]

Thanks for reporting back.