What is Embedded Component

What is Embedded Component

An embedded component is integrated or embedded within the board substrate of a printed circuit board. These components can be either passive or active. Passive embedded components, such as resistors and capacitors, are created by selecting specific layer materials to form resistive or capacitive structures within the PCB, rather than simply placing discrete components in a cavity within the board substrate. The purpose of using embedded passives is to reduce parasitic effects, size, and provide an alternative to discrete surface-mount passives.

Embedded passives have become a common fabrication alternative to discrete surface-mount passives, particularly in applications such as series termination resistors where numerous transmission lines enter dense ball-grid array (BGA) microprocessor and memory devices. Different approaches to chip embedding technology include the Integrated Module Board (IMB), Embedded Wafer-Level Package (EWLP), Embedded Chip Buildup (ECBU), and Chip in Polymer (CIP) methods. These approaches involve aligning and placing components inside a cavity, performing technology steps at the wafer level, mounting chips to a polyimide film, or embedding thin chips into the buildup dielectric layers of PCBs.