Integration of Silver Heat Spreaders in LTCC utilizing Thick Silver Tape in the Co-fire Process

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (CICMT) ◽  
pp. 000062-000066 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Welker ◽  
S. Günschmann ◽  
N. Gutzeit ◽  
J. Müller

The integration density in semiconductor devices is significantly increased in the last years. This trend is already described by Moore's law what forecasts a doubling of the integration density every two years. This evolution makes greater demands on the substrate technology which is used for the first level interconnect between the semiconductor and the device package. Higher pattern resolution is required to connect more functions on a smaller chip. Also the thermal performance of the substrate is a crucial issue. The increased integration density leads to an increased power density, what means that more heat has to dissipate on a smaller area. Thus, substrates with a high thermal conductivity (e. g. direct bonded copper (DBC)) are utilized which spread the heat over a large area. However, the reduced pattern resolution caused by thick metal layers is disadvantageous for this substrate technology. Alternatively, low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) can be used. This multilayer technology provides a high pattern resolution in combination with a high integration grade. The poor thermal conductivity of LTCC (3 … 5 W*m−1*K−1) requires thermal vias made of silver paste which are placed between the power chip and the heat sink and reduce the thermal resistance of the substrate. The via-pitch and diameter is limited by the LTCC technology, what allows a maximum filling grade of approx. 20 to 25 %. Alternatively, an opening in the ceramic is created, to bond the chip directly to the heat sink. This leads to technological challenges like the CTE mismatch between the chip and the heat sink material. Expensive materials like copper molybdenum composites with matched CTE have to be used. In the presented investigation, a thick silver tape is used to form a thick silver heat spreader through the LTCC substrate. An opening is structured by laser cutting in the LTCC tape and filled with a laser cut silver tape. After lamination, the substrate is fired using a constraint sintering process. The bond strength of the silver to LTCC interface is approx. 5.6 MPa. The thermal resistance of the silver structure is measured by a thermal test chip (Delphi PST1, 2.5 mm × 2.5 mm) glued with a high thermal conducting epoxy to the silver structure. The chip contains a resistor and diodes to generate heat and to determine the junction temperature respectively. The backside of the test structure is temperature stabilized by a temperature controlled heat sink. The resulting thermal resistance is in the range of 1.1 K/W to 1.5 K/W depending on the length of silver structure (5 mm to 7 mm). Advantages of the presented heat spreader are the low thermal resistance and the good embedding capability in the co-fire LTCC process.

Author(s):  
Nhat Minh Nguyen ◽  
Eric Monier-Vinard ◽  
Najib Laraqi ◽  
Valentin Bissuel ◽  
Olivier Daniel

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to supply an analytical steady-state solution to the heat transfer equation permitting to fast design investigation. The capability to efficiently transfer the heat away from high-powered electronic devices is a ceaseless challenge. More than ever, the aluminium or copper heat spreaders seem less suitable for maintaining the component sensitive temperature below manufacturer operating limits. Emerging materials, such as annealed pyrolytic graphite (APG), have proposed a new alternative to conventional solid conduction without the gravity dependence of a heat-pipe solution. Design/methodology/approach An APG material is typically sandwiched between a pair of aluminium sheets to compose a robust graphite-based structure. The thermal behaviour of that stacked structure and the effect of the sensitivity of the design parameters on the effective thermal performances is not well known. The ultrahigh thermal conductivity of the APG core is restricted to in-plane conduction and can be 200 times higher than its through-the-thickness conductivity. So, a lower-than-anticipated cross-plane thermal conductivity or a higher-than-anticipated interlayer thermal resistance will compromise the component heat transfer to a cold structure. To analyse the sensitivity of these parameters, an analytical model for a multi-layered structure based on the Fourier series and the superposition principle was developed, which allows predicting the temperature distribution over an APG flat-plate depending on two interlayer thermal resistances. Findings The current work confirms that the in-plane thermal conductivity of APG is among the highest of any conduction material commonly used in electronic cooling. The analysed case reveals that an effective thermal conductivity twice as higher than copper can be expected for a thick APG sheet. The relevance of the developed analytical approach was compared to numerical simulations and experiments for a set of boundary conditions. The comparison shows a high agreement between both calculations to predict the centroid and average temperatures of the heating sources. Further, a method dedicated to the practical characterization of the effective thermal conductivity of an APG heat-spreader is promoted. Research limitations/implications The interlayer thermal resistances act as dissipation bottlenecks which magnify the performance discrepancy. The quantification of a realistic value is more than ever mandatory to assess the APG heat-spreader technology. Practical implications Conventional heat spreaders seem less suitable for maintaining the component-sensitive temperature below the manufacturer operating limits. Having an in-plane thermal conductivity of 1,600 W.m−1.K−1, the APG material seems to be the next paradigm for solving endless needs of a thermal designer. Originality/value This approach is a practical tool to tailor sensitive parameters early to select the right design concept by taking into account potential thermal issues, such as the critical interlayer thermal resistance.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andisheh Tavakoli ◽  
Kambiz Vafai

Abstract The present study analyzes the optimal distribution of a limited amount of high thermal conductivity material to enhance the heat removal of circular 3D integrated circuits, IC. The structure of the heat spreader is designed as a composite of high thermal conductivity (Boron Arsenide) and moderate thermal conductivity (copper) materials. The volume ratio of high-conductivity inserts to the total volume of the spreader is set at a fixed pertinent ratio. Two different boundary conditions of constant and variable temperature are considered for the heat sink. To examine the impact of adding high-conductivity inserts on the cooling performance of the heat spreader, various patterns of the single and double ring inserts are studied. A parametric study is performed to find the optimal location of the rings. Moreover, the optimal distribution of the high-conductivity material between the inner and outer rings is found. The results show that for the optimal conditions, the maximum temperature of the 3D IC is reduced up to 10%; while the size of the heat sink, and heat spreader can be diminished by as much as 200%.


2006 ◽  
Vol 968 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yimin Zhang ◽  
Allison Xiao ◽  
Jeff McVey

ABSTRACTThermal interface materials (TIMs) are used to dissipate thermal energy from a heat-generating device to a heat sink via conduction. The growing power density of the electronic device demands next-generation high thermal conductivity and/or low thermal resistance TIMs. This paper discusses the current state-of-art TIM solutions, particularly fusible particles for improved thermal conductivity. The paper will address the benefits and limitations of this approach, and describe a system with unique filler morphology. Thermal resistance and diffusivity/conductivity characterization techniques are also discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Jamaludin ◽  
P Anithambigai ◽  
S Shanmugan ◽  
D Mutharasu

Al2O3powder with various particle sizes was prepared by milling process and mixed together with epoxy resin in order to increase the thermal conductivity of resin and decrease the junction temperature of the LEDs. Al2O3 powder filled epoxy resin was applied as thermal interface material (TIM) for an effective system level analysis of thermal transient measurement. The result depicted that the milled Al2O3 powder for 3 hour powder showed the highest thermal conductivity and hence lower in thermal resistance of LED. Moreover, the driving currents also influence the thermal resistance and achieved low thermal resistance when measured at 350mA. The thermal properties of the sample were tested using t3ster. The surface morphology of the samples was tested using FESEM.


Author(s):  
Kyle A. Brucker ◽  
Kyle T. Ressler ◽  
Joseph Majdalani

In this article, general canonical forms for the effective thermal conductivities of compact heat sink models are derived using perturbation tools. The resulting approximations apply to a large number of fundamental heat sink shapes used in natural convection applications. The effective thermal conductivity is a property that can be assigned to the porous block (i.e., volume of fluid) above the heat sink base that was once occupied by the fins. The increased thermal conductivity of the fluid entering the porous block produces a reduced thermal resistance that matches that of the original heat sink. The use of a compact representation is accompanied by substantial computational savings that promote faster optimization and communication between simulation analysts and design engineers. The generalized approximations for the effective thermal conductivity presented here are numerically verified.


2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. H. Adams ◽  
V. A. Chiriac ◽  
T.-Y. Tom Lee

Abstract Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted to characterize the thermal performance of Molded Array Plastic Ball Grid Array (MAP PBGA) packages for hand-held applications. Due to size constraints, these PBGA packages tend to have fine pitch solder ball arrays and small overall size. Thermal analysis is required to assess the design risks associated with this trend toward smaller size and increasing power dissipation requirements. A conjugate heat transfer problem, in which radiative losses from the exposed surfaces of the package and the printed wiring board to the walls of the wind tunnel, was solved for horizontal natural convection cooling conditions. Thermal model assumptions and development for the MAP PBGA package are provided. The model is benchmarked with measurements obtained for a 64 I/O 0.8 mm pitch, 8 mm MAP PBGA. Predictions for junction-to-ambient thermal resistance were within 10% of measured values. Baseline simulations were conducted for 0.8 mm pitch MAP PBGA packages with substrate/die size combinations in the range of 6 to 12 mm substrate size and 3.81 to 7.62 mm die size. Junction-to-ambient thermal resistances varied over the range of 28.8 °C/W to 62.4 °C/W. Methods to improve thermal performance of these packages were investigated. Previous work indicated that effective conduction to the substrate by heat spreaders, metallic lids, mold compound, heat sinks, and their combinations promoted thermal performance. A necessary further step is to understand how effective area for heat spreading inside the package affects its thermal behavior, while varying the die size for package configurations with and without heat spreader. Studies were conducted to evaluate thermal performance improvement through the use of a copper heat spreader on the package top surface as it is affected by die size, package size, and substrate effective thermal conductivity. Substrate effective thermal conductivity is varied through the use of two and four layer substrates with thermal vias under the die. Results show a modest 1% to 15% reduction in junction-to-ambient thermal resistance for the MAP PBGA package sizes of interest.


Author(s):  
Kyle A. Brucker ◽  
Kyle T. Ressler ◽  
Joseph Majdalani

In the cooling of electronic packages, the task of simulating large arrays of heat sinks is often accomplished by the use of compact models. These simpler models attempt to capture the thermal and flow resistance characteristics of a representative heat sink while ignoring secondary detail. In the porous block model, an equivalent thermal conductivity is assigned to the fluid that enters the ‘porous’ space above the heat sink base that was once occupied by the fins. This artificially enhanced thermal conductivity enables the porous block of fluid to exhibit the same thermal resistance as that of the original heat sink. Due to the three-dimensional distribution of the thermal resistance in space, temperature maps associated with the resulting model provide better agreement with detailed numerical simulations than is possible with other models based on two-dimensional flat plate or thin sheet approximations. In this paper, we present closed-form expressions for the equivalent thermal conductivity associated with a large number of heat sink shapes in a forced convection environment.


Author(s):  
Christopher Oshman ◽  
Qian Li ◽  
Li-Anne Liew ◽  
Ronggui Yang ◽  
Y. C. Lee ◽  
...  

We report the successful fabrication and application of a micro-scale hybrid liquid wicking structure in flat polymer-based heat spreaders to improve the heat transfer performance under gravitational acceleration. The hybrid wick consists of 100 μm high, 200 μm wide square electroformed high aspect ratio copper micro-pillars with 31 μm spacing for liquid flow. A woven copper mesh with 51 μm diameter and 76 μm spacing was bonded to the top surface of the pillars to enhance evaporation and condensation heat transfer. The exterior device geometry is 40 mm × 40 mm × 1.0 mm. The 100 μm thick liquid crystal polymer (LCP) casing contains a two-dimensional array of copper filled vias to reduce the overall thermal resistance. The device was tested with heat flux input of up to 63 W/cm2 at horizontal and vertical orientations. The difference in temperature between the evaporator and condenser was measured and compared to a copper reference block of identical exterior dimensions. The experimentally determined thermal resistance of the copper block remained nearly constant at 1.2 K/W. The thermal resistance of the flat polymer heat spreader at horizontal orientation was 0.55 K/W. The same device at −90° adverse orientation resulted in a thermal resistance of 0.60 K/W. These measurements indicate that this hybrid wicking structure is capable of providing a capillary pumping pressure that is effective at transferring at least 63 W/cm2 heat flux regardless of orientation. This work illustrates an important step to developing more effective thermal management strategies for the next generation of heat generating components and the possibility of developing flexible, polymer-based heat spreaders fabricated with standardized printed circuit board technologies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanmugan Subramani ◽  
Mutharasu Devarajan

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to study the effect of thickness and surface properties of ZnO solid thin film for heat dissipation application in LED. Heat dissipation in electronic packaging can be improved by applying a thermally conductive interface material (TIM) and hence the junction temperature will be maintained. ZnO is one of the oxide materials and used as a filler to increase the thermal conductivity of thermal paste. The thickness of these paste-type material cannot be controlled which restricts the heat flow from the LED junction to ambient. The controlled thickness is only possible by using a solid thin-film interface material. Design/methodology/approach – Radio Frequency (RF)-sputtered ZnO thin film on Cu substrates were used as a heat sink for high-power LED and the thermal performance of various ZnO thin film thickness on changing total thermal resistance (R th-tot) and rise in junction temperature were tested. Thermal transient analysis was used to study the performance of the given LED. The influence of surface roughness profile was also tested on the LED performance. Findings – The junction temperature was high (6.35°C) for 200 nm thickness of ZnO thin film boundary condition when compared with bare Cu substrates. Consecutively, low R th-tot values were noticed with the same boundary condition. The 600 nm thickness of ZnO thin film exhibited high R th-tot and interface resistance than the other thicknesses. Bond Line Thickness of the interface material was influenced on the interface thermal resistance which was decreased with increased BLT. Surface roughness parameter showed an immense effect on thermal transport, and hence, low R th (47.6 K/W) value was noticed with low film roughness (7 nm) as compared with bare Cu substrate (50.8 K/W) where the surface roughness was 20.5 nm. Originality/value – Instead of using thermal paste, solid thin film ZnO is used as TIM and coated Cu substrates were used as a heat sink. The thickness can be controlled, and it is a new approach for reducing the BLT between the metal core printed circuit board and heat sink.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Ramakrishna ◽  
T.-Y. Tom Lee

Enhancements to thermal performance of FC-PBGA packages due to underfill thermal conductivity, controlled collapse chip connection (C4) pitch, package to printed wiring board (PWB) interconnection through thermal balls, a heat spreader on the backside of the die, and an overmolded die with and without a heat spreader have been studied by solving a conjugate heat transfer problem. These enhancements have been investigated under natural and forced convection conditions for freestream velocities up to 2 m/s. The following ranges of parameters have been covered in this study: substrate size: 25–35 mm, die size: 6.19×7.81 mm (48 mm2 area) and 9.13×12.95 mm (118 mm2 area), underfill thermal conductivity: 0.6–3.0 W/(m K), C4 pitch: 250 μm and below, no thermal balls to 9×9 array of thermal balls on 1.27 mm square pitch, and with copper heat spreader on the back of a bare and an overmolded die. Based on our previous work, predictions in this study are expected to be within ±10% of measured data. The conclusions of the study are: (i) Thermal conductivity of the underfill in the range 0.6 to 10 W/(m K) has negligible effect on thermal performance of FC-PBGA packages investigated here. (ii) Thermal resistances decrease 12–15% as C4 pitch decreases below 250 μm. This enhancement is smaller with increase in die area. (iii) Thermal balls connected to the PTHs in the PWB decrease thermal resistance of the package by 10–15% with 9×9 array of thermal balls and PTHs compared to no thermal balls. The effect of die size on this enhancement is more noticeable on junction to board thermal resistance, Ψjb, than the other two package thermal metrics. (iv) Heat spreader on the back of the die decreases junction-to-ambient thermal resistance, Θja, by 6% in natural convection and by 25% in forced convection. (v) An overmolded die with a heat spreader provides better a thermal enhancement than a heat spreader on a bare die for freestream velocities up to about 1 m/s. Beyond 1 m/s, a heat spreader on bare die has better thermal performance.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document