Moisture absorption occurs when the material is exposed to high humidity or water. Both the resin and the reinforcement may absorb water; water may be also soaked by capillary forces through voids in the materials and along the reinforcement. Epoxies of the FR-4 materials aren't too susceptible, with absorption of only 0.15%. Teflon has very low absorption of 0.01%. Polyimides and cyanate esters, on the other side, suffer from high water absorption. Absorbed water can lead to significant degradation of key parameters; it impairs tracking resistance, breakdown voltage, and dielectric parameters. Relative dielectric constant of water is about 73, compared to about 4 for common circuitboard materials. Absorbed moisture can also vaporize on heating and cause cracking and delamination, the same effect responsible for "popcorning" damage on wet packaging of electronic parts. Careful baking of the substrates may be required.
What's the approximate relative dielectric constant of most materials in circuit boards?
4