Imbera Licenses Embedded Component Technology to Ibiden
Published: 24 September 2008
by Staff
Imbera also announced it has released the next generation of IMB technology that allows OEMs/ODMs to produce smaller boards, in less time and at lower costs, through simple adaptations to current manufacturing processes. Through this latest technology, numerous types of components can be embedded inside the core layer of a PCB, such as discrete passive components, wafer level CSPs and bare die.
The Imbera IMB technology embeds components on the inside of a PCB core layer and then electrically connects them by laser drilling and electrolytic copper plating. Differing from other embedded component processes, Imbera IMB embeds unpackaged die and components, reducing the footprint. The components are attached to a sheet of copper foil and processed through pre-preg build-up and a lamination sequence that results in the encapsulation of the components into a double-sided PCB core layer. Standard laminate materials are used. The laminated core is processed through laser drilling to expose the electrical contact areas on the embedded components and then the core is electroplated to make the connection to the top layer of circuitry.
A wide variety of components can be embedded including discrete passive components, application specific integrated passive (ASIP) components, bare die (Silicon, GaAs) and wafer level CSPs. According to CTO, Risto Tuominen the current process has some I/O limitations, with components that have over 350 I/Os being harder to process.
