White Paper: Component Embedding in PCBs

Karl-Heinz Fritz, VP Technology at Cicor, has authored a white paper providing an overview of component embedding methods in PCBs and their potential for device miniaturisation. You can request your copy here.

Abstract

Electronic devices are getting ever smaller and there is a trend of increased functional integration, especially in the field of medical applications. Mounting electronic components on the surface of PCBs using technologies such as SMT, wire bonding, ACF bonding and other well-known assembly methods are not supporting this trend to the extent needed. Moving components to the “inside” of circuits comes with several performance related improvements. Amongst these are shortening the length of connections for better signal integrity and improved energy consumption, optimising thermal management, protecting components from potentially harmful environments and providing a higher level of copy protection.

One main driver for this technology is the potential for further miniaturisation of PCBs and packages. Embedding components in PCBs/packages can significantly decrease their footprint, enable the integration of additional functionality or simply reduce the size of devices. Embedding multiple components on different layers in the stack-up increases the potential for footprint reduction.