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SMT Trends & Technologies: Journey to the Center of the PCB
December 10, 2012 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Editor's Note: This column originally appeared in the November 2012 issue of SMT Magazine.The 01005 package, or for the metrically-minded among us, the 0402M, has been in use since approximately 2002. Although such a package is a big step down in miniaturization, you won’t find it designed into any of your devices. Only recently have we started to see the latest mobile devices populated with this package--nearly 10 years after its introduction. However, the package has been in mass production in the IC packaging industry, where 01005 components are integrated into ICs, since 2002.
With 01005 components finding their way onto PCBs, what’s next? Even smaller components? Passive manufacturers are indeed looking at 0201M (0050025) components along with many more possibilities including wafer-level packaging and imprinting into PCBs. For components, the next step has already been taken: Embedded components.
How quickly will they be adopted by the industry? Why consider doing this at all?
Why Embedded Components?
The why is probably simpler than the how, for a number of reasons. Embedded components save space on the PCB so it can be used to pack in new features or to make the PCB smaller to reduce costs. Integrating can also make devices thinner, which will come in handy for future smartphone designs.
The latest embedded passive devices (EPDs) no longer have tin leads. The leads are copper and are not soldered, thus helping to improve signal integrity. Devices can now be faster, and the copper-to-copper connections are much more reliable than soldered leads. Embedded devices are fully encapsulated so the end-product can withstand much more severe conditions and better comply with new safety standards and stress tests. Embedding is not just limited to passives, capacitors and resistors, but can also be used for active devices like flip chips or embedded active devices (EADs). Figure 1: Newer EPDs now feature copper leads (right). So, why would you not want switch over? You gain better signals and thinner, more reliable products. It does involve substrate manufacturing, though--an industry that does not yet fully incorporate SMT equipment.
Many processes are available to embed components. You can place them on a layer and build layers around the component. Or you can produce the layer and place the component in very small cavities (the space around the passives is 20 microns or less), and then place the next layer on top, making the electrical connections using vias. Here, you are not only dealing with your everyday 01005 or 0201 components, which already give many headaches, but EPDs that are extra low in height. Figure 2: Components may be placed in very small cavities--the space around the passives is 20 microns or less.
That, again, allows thinner devices, but it requires much more delicate handling. And how will the industries shift? Will PCB manufacturing shift toward the SMT industry, or vice versa?
When to Use Embedded Components
Clearly, we are not yet ready for everyday manufacturing. But is manufacturing actually in progress? Yes, in the IC packaging industry, again, where many processes are performed in-house. The result is faster and thinner IC packaging. You will find large substrates, with well over 1,500 circuits, supported by a very stiff frame. That all fits on a complete substrate with up to 30,000 components, extra-thin resistors, and capacitors placed in very narrow cavities. Here, particularly, as you can imagine, yield counts. Such processes are being performed right now by SMT equipment--all at full speed and with excellent yields.
Just like the 01005 components that are only now finding their way into standard PCB assembly, the embedded device process will probably not show up in standard production for a few years. Will it take another 10 years, though? Or will its benefits persuade some industries to pick it up much earlier? Eric Klaver was born in Rosemere, Quebec, and, via Oklahoma, he moved with his family to Holland at the age of 12. After finishing school, he became a radio officer for the merchant navy. After studying computer science where he learned how to program and design ICs Klaver enjoyed a career at Philips. This was followed by a move to Assembléon in 1998. As commercial product manager he translates high-level technical developments into easy-to-understand commercial material. Klaver specializes in vision technology and feeding and is currently the chairman of IEC work group TC40WG36, which specializes in component packaging.