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June 2017 • The PCB Magazine 39 including the land for the solder joints. A uni- form distribution of these areas across the circuit board area is advantageous when embedding de- vices. Circuit board thickness The final thickness of the printed circuit board results essentially from the thickness of the embedded components. The maximum component height is decisive. The design for manufacturing (DFM) strat- egy is key for the success of the device embed- ding technology. When this technology was started, design software did not exist. Today, many of the large CAD companies offer sup- port. However, not many PCB fabricators have the experience to support the PCB fabrication for an effective design for manufacturing. Co- operation with the customer at the earliest pos- sible time is needed to establish the foundation for a successful partnership and for a functional and innovative product. It is also the basis for cost-effective planning for a long-term strategy in the case that the product shall be in mass production and shall be used in a global mar- ketplace. The device embedding technology is driven by the cost-performance relationship. However, the components define the functionality per- formance characteristics of the product. Also, the availability of these devices will be key for the development of the technology of device embedding PCBs. As indicated in Figure 9, there are some lim- iting factors that are driven by the components, the manufacturing process and/or the use of the materials that are not suitable for an effective device embedding fabrication process. New options must be considered. Here, met- al core PCBs (MC-PCB) with standard epoxy res- ins may be used. This could replace the need for thermal vias and/or expensive highly thermally conductive materials in conjunction with stan- dards surface mount attachment technology PCBs. With the new option of MC-PCBs, relatively inexpensive constructions can be realised. This is possible by using a highly thermally conduc- tive dielectric layer between the aluminium support and the conductor/components layers. From our experience, this build-up construction has proven excellent heat dissipation capabili- EMBEDDING ACTIVE AND PASSIVE COMPONENTS IN ORGANIC PCBS Figure 8: Design guidelines are important for success.