The IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm) was held at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes, Orlando, FL, May 30 – June 2, 2023. This was the 22nd ITherm, which was first held in 1988. The conference was historically held every other year until 2016 when it switched to an annual schedule. ITherm 2023 was sponsored by the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS). ITherm has partnered with IEEE EPS peer conferences, including the International Workshop on Thermal Investigations of ICs and Systems (THERMINIC) in Europe, and the Electronics Packaging Technology Conference (EPTC 2023) in Asia.
The ITherm 2023 program consisted of 16 professional development workshops and three full days of technical presentations in four tracks with 43 sessions in which 145 papers were presented. Additional technical events included three keynote addresses, five panels, five technology talks, a student poster competition, and a student heat sink design competition.
Keynotes
On the first day of the conference, Sandeep Ahuja, Sr. Principal Engineer in the Datacenter and AI Group of Intel, gave a keynote address entitled “Transformation of Data Centers from Air to Liquid Cooling” discussing the benefits and challenges of adapting data centers to liquid cooling to addressing modern compute loads.
On the second day of the conference, Griselda Bonilla, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM) and Senior Manager of the Advanced Interconnect Technology group at IBM Research, gave a keynote address entitled “Innovative Chiplet Integration Technologies for HPC and AI Hardware Systems” describing the opportunities provided by chiplet integration to allow modular performance scaling.
On the final day of the conference, Steve Rickman, F NASA Technical Fellow for Thermal Control & Protection, gave a keynote address entitled “Space Mission Thermal Control and Protection Challenges – Past, Present, and Future” discussing thermal management in extreme environments ranging from near absolute zero up to 140,000 K.
Best and Outstanding Papers
Awards given for the best and outstanding papers in each track, based on judging from reviews and inputs from session and track chairs, were unveiled to the attendees.
Professor Avram Bar-Cohen Best Papers
Component Level Thermal Management
• Min Jong Kil (UCLA), Eythan Lam (UC – Santa Barbara), Mostafa Abuseada (UCLA), James F. Buckwalter (UC – Santa Barbara), Timothy S. Fisher (UCLA) “Direct Solar-Thermal Formation of Graphitic Heat Spreaders on Organic Substrates.”
System Level Thermal Management
• Youngsang Cho, Heonwoo Kim, Kyoungmin Lee, Yunhyeok Im, Heeseok Lee, and Minkyu Kim “Thermal Aware Floorplan Optimization of SOC in Mobile Phone,” Samsung Electronics Co.
Mechanics and Reliability
• Pranay P. Nagrani, Ritwik V. Kulkarni & Amy M. Marconnet, “Influence of Thermal Cycling on Degradation Behavior of Thermal Greases,” Purdue University.
Emerging Technologies & Fundamentals
• Qian Qian (Purdue University), Xin Zhang (IBM Research), Shurong Tian (IBM Research), Justin A. Weibel (Purdue University), Liang Pan (Purdue University), “Experimental investigation of ultra-thin microchannel oscillating heat pipes with submillimeter-scale thickness,” Purdue University.
Best Paper – Runner Up
Component Level Thermal Management
• G. Elsinger (KU Leuven / imec), H. Oprins, V. Cherman (imec), G. Van der Plas (imec), E. Beyne (imec) & I. De Wolf (KU Leuven / imec), “Micro-Scale Jet Cooling: A Numerical Study on Improvement Options.”
System Level Thermal Management
• Christopher D. Kim, Allison M. Orr and Amelia A. Cherian, “Bi-Modal Thermal Design of a Spacebourne Rotorcraft Avionics Unit,” Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab.
Mechanics and Reliability
• Sai Sanjit Ganti, Ganesh Subbarayan, “Multiscale, Non-Intrusive Computational Framework for Analyzing Rate-Dependent Deformation of Solder Joints,” Purdue University.
Emerging Technologies & Fundamentals
• Juvani Downer, Mehdi Kabir, Jiajun Xu, “The Design and Development of a Smart Multilayer Coating with Variable Emissivity Capability for Space Vehicle Thermal Control Systems,” University of the District of Columbia.
Student Poster and Networking Session
The student poster and networking session provided an opportunity for students to interact with industry and academic leaders in their fields. This venue enabled students to connect with possible future employers and to receive feedback on their work. The student posters were subjected to two rounds of judging based on technical merit, clarity, self-sufficiency of the content, originality of the work, visual presentation, and oral presentation with best and outstanding posters selected for each technical track and one poster was selected as the best overall.
Best Overall Poster
• Diego Vaca, Georgia Institute of Technology “Temperature Dependent Thermal Properties of Thin Film Hafnium Oxide”
Best Posters
Component Level Thermal Management
• Carol Caceres, Villanova University “Dynamic Modeling of a Refrigerant-Based Cross-flow Heat Exchanger for Close-Coupled Hybrid Cooled Data Centers”
System Level Thermal Management
• Falak Mandali, Purdue University “Control Co-Design of a Thermal Management System with Integrated Latent Thermal Energy Storage and a Logic-based Controller”
Mechanics and Reliability
• Pranay Nagrani, Purdue University “Influence of Thermal Cycling on Degradation Behavior of Thermal Greases”
Emerging Technologies & Fundamentals
• Diego Vaca , Georgia Institute of Technology “Temperature Dependent Thermal Properties of Thin Film Hafnium Oxide”
Outstanding Posters
Component Level Thermal Management
• Georg Elsinger, KU Leuven “Micro-Scale Jet Cooling: A Numerical Study on Improvement Options”
System Level Thermal Management
• Joshua Palumbo, University of Toronto “Implementation of a Topologically Optimized Heat Sink for Non-Uniform Heat Fluxes in an EV Fast-Charger”
Mechanics and Reliability
• Jinesh Narangaparambil, Auburn University “Influence of Component Interconnect with Printed Copper Circuits on Realized Mechanical and Electrical Characteristics in FHE Applications”
Emerging Technologies & Fundamentals
• Aalok Gaitonde, Purdue University “Feasibility Assessment of Metrologies for Thermal Resistance Characterization of Deeply Buried Interfaces between Bonded Silicon Layers”
Student Heat Sink Design Challenge
The ASME K-16/IEEE EPS Student Design Challenge is a team competition in which students design, analyze, and optimize an additively manufactured, aluminum heat sinks to cool a constant heat flux power electronics module subject to forced convection. Designs were submitted by teams from around the world and evaluated by a team of experts based on a series of design and manufacturing criteria. For the 2023 competition, the top 4 most effective and creative designs were printed using additive manufacturing facilities at GE and tested using state-of-the-art test equipment at the Southern University of Denmark. The 4 semi-finalist heat sinks are shown in Figure 1.
University of Utah]
Winner
• Preston Bodily, Taylor Cox, Chandler Elliott, Zach Julien, Xander Lehnardt, University of Utah (Figure 2)
Runner-up
• Kai Wei, Marshall Allen, Mark Luke, Texas A&M University (Figure 3)
Richard Chu ITherm Award for Excellence
Prof. Suresh K. Sitaraman was awarded the Richard Chu ITherm Award for Excellence. Prof. Sitaraman is the Director for the Flexible and Wearable Electronics Advanced Research (FlexWEAR@Tech) Program and the Director for the Computer-Aided Simulation of Packaging Reliability (CASPaR) Lab at Georgia Tech. His expertise is in the areas of fabrication, characterization, physics-based modeling, and thermal-mechanical and reliable design of nano-scale and micro-scale structures for a wide range of applications. Dr. Sitaraman has co-authored more than 340 journal and conference publications in these areas. He has managed several research and
Figure 2: Winning Design – University of Utah
Figure 3: Runner-up – Texas A&M University28 electronics-cooling.com
development projects funded by US federal agencies, industry, and other sources totaling millions of dollars, and has mentored a vast array of post-doctoral fellows as well as doctoral, master’s, bachelor’s, and high-school students. Prior to joining Georgia Tech in 1995, Dr. Sitaraman was with IBM Corp.
Proceedings
We are also pleased to announce that the ITherm 2023 Proceedings are available through IEEE Xplore Digital Library at https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/10177286/proceeding. Papers appearing in the Table of Contents are available for access and download, along with listings of our Keynote Speakers, Tech Talks, Panels, Sponsors, and Exhibitors.
Sponsors and Exhibitors
ITherm 2023 was made possible by those of you who attended and by the generous support of our sponsors and exhibitors.
