Integrated Module Board (IMB); an advanced manufacturing technology for embedding active components inside organic substrate

One of the main questions and challenges in current electronics manufacturing and packaging development is how to integrate mote functions into the same or even smaller size. The electrical performance and the number of functions of every new product generation have increased and at the same time the size has decreased. Due to this the packaging density of the products has increased quite rapidly during past years. At the same time there is a need for better electrical properties of the package and the interconnection itself. This development has caused big challenges for the used packaging and manufacturing technologies. With traditional technologies it has become more difficult to increase the packaging density. To meet these requirements Integrated Module Board (IMB) technology has been developed. In the Integrated Module Board technology active components are embedded inside a printed wiring board (PWB) or other organic substrate. The IMB process combines PWB manufacturing, component packaging and component assembly into a single manufacturing process flow. The manufacturing process allows embedding an entire product or some of its functional parts inside the substrate. All interconnections between the IC and the substrate are done simultaneously using an electroplating process. The IMB technology enables high interconnection density with good reliability. In this paper an overview of IMB technology, its technological capability and electrical performance are presented.