Question about teflon

[kendt]

I was wondering if hard wiring components on a solid teflon board would be a better choice sound wise to a standard pcb. The reason I ask Is that i have access to 1/4 teflon stock and best of all it's free

I know it's more work and butt ugly but I seem to recall some years back that the ultra high end amps used it.

[jackinnj]

teflon provides an extraordinary amount of isolation -- the problem is getting anything to adhere to it -- I would suppose that the 3M copper tape would probably work.
i would think it to be just the thing for a moving coil preamp board.

[Petter]

kendt

You are right on the money. The "best" way to build things (assuming there is such a thing of course, flames come here ...) is to build using a three dimensional "birds nest" topology. This is because air is the next best thing to vacuum. What we are talking about here is dielectric constant, dielectric loss and length of wires.

Teflon is just about the lowest dielectric loss material out there. It still has a significantly higher dielectric constant than air, but dielectric loss is probably much more important as the other capacitances will likely be swamped out by components anyway.

As far as how much work it is, "birds nest" is likely the hardest + hardest to troubleshoot, and it blows up in your face as your component count increases. Teflon hardwiring, where one uses the component's own leads as much as possible is not that hard provided you plan ahead + you get more layers and the opportunity to have greater distances between the "layers". I recommend at least laying out the components to see that it will all fit + put a temporary piece of paper on the teflon while building. May I also suggest that you give yourself a little more space than you thought you needed ....

So you are right. I think it looks pretty but most people don't view it that way.

Note, printed circuit boards are better at one thing - low impedance ground planes but I expect that to be a non-issue in your case even though one major application targeted/approached with such ground planes are current applications.

BTW, please do post pictures for inspiration!

Petter
PS: If you do need to glue to it, look it up on the web - I believe you need etching glue, but you should not need to glue things if you build it "right".

[kendt]

Super

I will start gathering some bits and give it a go!!

[jackinnj]

the "dead bug" or Manhattan style of circuit building -- ugly as it is with all the critters feet in the air -- is a wonderful method for prototyping low voltage circuits.

go for it with the teflon !

[Nelson Pass]

Originally posted by Petter
You are right on the money. The "best" way to build things (assuming there is such a thing of course, flames come here ...) is to build using a three dimensional "birds nest" topology. This is because air is the next best thing to vacuum. What we are talking about here is dielectric constant, dielectric loss and length of wires.

Of course the best way to do that is in a vacuum chamber.

[anatech]

Hi Nelson,

Of course the best way to do that is in a vacuum chamber.

The return of the vacuum tube! Vacuum contained circuit in this case.

-Chris

[roddyama]

Hmmm???

[steenoe]

Roddyama, thats all the vacuum I need Very nice pics

Steen