Economic and technical viability of integral passives

Integral substrates (printed wiring boards with buried capacitors and/or resistors) can lower costs, improve component density, improve performance and reliability. Integral substrates are economically and technically viable for replacing a large portion of the ceramic chip capacitors used for decoupling and resistor chips and networks used for termination, pull-up and pull-down. However, passive integration is easier said than done. Integral substrates require new design and test systems, manufacturing processes and materials. Further investigation concludes that stable, low cost materials and processes, design and test systems are only half the equation. In order for this technology to reach its full market potential, time-to-market issues such as rapid prototyping and engineering changes must be solved.