Cost and production analysis for substrates with embedded passives

With the advent of new materials and technologies that enable passive components to be embedded within electronic substrates, one key question that arises is: under what circumstances (and for what type of applications) is it economically viable to consider using embedded passives? The economic issues that must be considered consist of a combination of manufacturing costs and throughputs, and non‐manufacturing life cycle costs. This paper discusses the assessment of manufacturing costs associated with embedding resistors and capacitors in printed circuit boards and provides cost modeling results for an avionics board. The discussion is extended to include optimizing the specific embedded passive content in a board and design for production modeling when embedded passives are present. Life cycle cost issues are also qualitatively discussed.