The U.S Patent and Trademark Office has awarded patent No. 8, 587,947, “Heat Spreader for IC Package, and IC Package Clamper Having the Heat Spreader” to Shinko Electric Industries Co., Ltd. of Japan.
According to background information supplied by the inventors, “there are proposed various heat spreaders for spreading heat generated from an IC chip mounted on an IC package.”
“For example, JP-2563182-B describes a heat sink attaching apparatus in which a gate array is mounted inside a space (cavity) defined by a frame, and a finned heat sink is provided to make contact with a top surface pad of the gate array, thereby spreading heat generated from the gate array.”
“While the heat spreading efficiency of the above-mentioned heat sink is good as it is provided with plural fins laminated along a post, such structure is complicated, and the operation (catching the post with a hole formed in a heat sink clip by inserting the heat sink clip between two of the fins) required for attaching the heat sink is cumbersome.”
“Thus, there is a demand for a heat spreader which has a simple structure, and can be easily attached. For example, a so-called hat type heat spreader as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B is proposed.”
“According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heat spreader to be mounted on an IC package, the IC package including: a circuit board; an IC chip mounted on one surface of the circuit board; and a plurality of connection terminals formed on the other surface of the circuit board, the heat spreader including: a top wall formed into a rectangular shape; a circumferential wall formed continuously from the top wall, the circumferential wall and the top wall defining a block-like cavity for enclosing the IC chip when the heat spreader is mounted on the IC package; and ear portions formed at lengthwise central portions of a facing pair of side walls of the circumferential wall so to extend outwardly from bottom edges of the facing pair of side walls, respectively.”
