Happy Holden and Per Viklund
Mentor Graphics

The need for many capacitors and resistors to support today's high-density, high-performance integrated circuits (ICs) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) has led to an increase in product sizes due to the space required for discrete components. Embedding those components on the inner layers of a printed circuit board (PCB) can significantly reduce product sizes and improve performance. This paper discusses the various materials, manufacturing approaches, and cost advantages of using embedded passive technologies, as well as the tools and approaches required to efficiently design these components.