Smart PWB manufacturing technologies

The inherent functionality of a printed wiring board (PWB) can be dramatically increased by embedding electronic components into the board. For resistors, capacitors and inductors, technological turnkey solutions are offered by major manufacturers and novel technologies are also under development. A further boost of functionality will be accomplished by the integration of active chips into the board. Two approaches for chip integration into the board will be discussed in detail: the chip in polymer (CIP) approach and the embedding of chips into flexible PWBs via flip chip process.