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18 The PCB Magazine • July 2014 DEvICE EMBEDDING IN PCBS: EvOLUTION OR REvOLUTION? continues ever they may be. The PCB fabrication market was a suppliers market in the '80s. The supplier (i.e., the PCB fabricator) could set the prices for his products and the customer had to agree on it to get the products. Today, the PCB market is a buyer or purchasing agent market. The prices for PCBs are, in many instances, defined by the product buyer. Often, the PCB fabricator has no option but to agree to the offered price or he will not get the order. Furthermore, in longer-term contracts, price reductions are included—often between 5–10% p.a. Purchasing agents are us - ing the well written IPC standards to define the workmanship and the quality of the finished PCBs. On many occasions these requirements are over-specified and do not reflect the required manufacturing technology and tolerances need- ed for a given application. PCB fabricators have to learn again that they are in the business to make money and that the PCBs are the tools to achieve this task. In addition, the PCB purchas- ing agents or buyers have to learn that only a PCB fabricator that makes money will be able to stay in business and will have the financial resources to invest in future technology, innova- tion, manpower and equipment. Embedded Technology in Europe Why use device embedding in PCBs? Device embedding technology in Europe is used to add electronic, mechanical, thermal management and environmental function to PCBs as well as increasing the value to the basic PCB. For PCB fabricators, component embed- ding means leading integration in the supply chain. It will also shift the focus away from the PCB assembler to the bare board PCB fabricator who embeds the devices in the PCB. Historical development of device embedding in PCBs Embedded passive components have been used in large quantities in ceramic hybrid cir- cuit fabrication since the '70s. Active compo- nents have been wire bonded, soldered or glued to such modules. In the late '90s, component embedded technologies using organic PCB ma- terials were patented by Hofmann Leiterplatten GmbH for the AML technology [2] and by SIE- MENS AG in Germany for SIMOVE ® technology. The SIMOVE (Figure 1) technology was very successful for a period of 2–3 years [3] . Licenses Figure 1: technology options used in the SiMoVe technology developed by SieMenS ag in germany [3] .