Fujikura Offers Flexible Circuit Board With Embedded Chips
TOKYO, April 23 Asia Pulse - Japan?s Fujikura Ltd. (TSE:5803) has 
developed a way to fabricate multilayer flexible circuit boards that have 
integrated circuit (IC) chips buried in the layers, which frees more 
surface space for the mounting of other components so the overall module 
can be smaller.
To make these products, the company eliminates sections among lower layers 
of the board and inserts chips using wafer-level packaging that is not 
much bigger than the chips themselves.
Multilayer flexible circuit boards are in strong demand for applications 
in cell phones and digital cameras because their multiple layers of wiring 
allow the electronics to be designed in a smaller space. The IC chips are 
normally mounted on top of the boards and take up the largest space, so by 
burying them inside the boards a significant amount of surface space opens 
up for other components and the boards can be smaller overall.
Fujikura has already begun shipping samples designed for the modules used 
for cell phone cameras and Bluetooth functionality and expects to ship 
products for commercial applications as early as fiscal year 2008.
(Nikkei)