Technical Brief
John F. Maddox, Ph.D., P.E.
The IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm) was held at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV from May 28–31, 2019. This was the 31st Anniversary of ITherm, first held in 1988. The conference was historically held every other year until 2016 when it switched to an annual schedule, making this the 18th ITherm. ITherm 2019 was sponsored by the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS) and co–located with the 69th Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC 2019).
The ITherm 2019 program consisted of 18 professional development workshops on Tuesday, May 28, 2019, followed by three full days of technical presentations in four tracks with 50 sessions, in which 181 papers were presented. Additional technical events included three keynote addresses, five panels, five technology talks, a student poster competition, and an Art-in-Science competition. Of note was a presentation session by students competing in the second annual heat sink design competition, hosted by ASME/K16 and EPS. There were also two panels held jointly with ECTC–the ECTC/ITherm Young Professionals Panel and the ECTC/ITherm Joint Women’s Panel, “Unleashing the Power of Diversity in the Workforce.” Both panels were sponsored by EPS and provided an opportunity for closer interaction between the attendees of the two conferences.
This year saw several new additions to the conference, including an improved mobile app, a heat sink design competition, and demonstrations of air, dry ice, and liquid nitrogen cooling by the Oregon State University Overclocking team. An ITherm LinkedIn page was introduced in 2018, which we invite you to join to keep up with announcements and deadlines for ITherm 2020.
Richard Chu ITherm Award for Excellence
Prof. John R. Thome was awarded the Richard Chu ITherm Award for Excellence for his pioneering work on multiphase flows. Dr. Thome is Professor-Emeritus of Heat and Mass Transfer at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, and founder of JJ Cooling Innovation Sàrl in Laussane. Through decades of research, his work has produced new insights into micro channel flow boiling, new flow visualization/image processing techniques, flow stabilization, heat transfer models, flow pattern maps, micro-two-phase cooling systems, and numerical modeling of bubbly/slug flows.
Keynotes
On the first day of the conference, Dr. Guarang Choksi, vice president of technology development and director of assembly and test technology development at Intel, gave a keynote address entitled “Component Integration vs. Product Differentiation: Electronic Packaging Choices for Heterogeneous Assembly & Test.” Dr. Choksi discussed the need for interdisciplinary tools for analysis, simulations, and characterization to meet to heterogeneous packaging needs of the future as we move toward 2.5D and 3D architectures.
On the second day of the conference, Dr. Andrew Alleyne, Ralph & Catherine Fisher Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, gave a keynote address entitled “A Systems Approach to Management of Transient Thermal Systems for Mobile Electrification.” Dr. Alleyne illustrated the use of a systems-based framework to control the complex electro-thermal interconnected subsystems on board modern transportation platforms.
On the final day of the conference, Cullen Bash, vice president and director of the Systems Architecture Lab at Hewlett Packard, gave a keynote address entitled “Computing beyond Moore’s Law.” This talk described the transition from traditional CPU driven computing to a memory and data driven model with specialized devices and the challenges this transition places on traditional architectural elements.
Best and Outstanding Papers
An awards luncheon was held on the final day of the conference, at which awards 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.
Best Papers
Component Level Thermal Management
- Piyas Chowdhury, Kamal Sikka, Alfred Grill, Dishit P. Parekh, “Optimal Filler Sizes for Thermal Interface Materials,” IBM.
System Level Thermal Management
- Shurong Tian, Todd Takken, Mark Shultz, Chris Marroquin, Vic Mahaney, Yuan Yao, Michael J Ellsworth Jr, Anil Yuksel, Paul Coteus, “A Single Flexible Cold Plate Cools Multiple Devices,” IBM.
Mechanics and Reliability
- Rainer Dudek, Kerstin Kreyssig, Sven Rzepka, Michael Novak, Wolfgang Gruebl, Peter Fruehauf, Andreas Weigert, “Comparisons of Solder Joints Fatigue Life Predictions and Several Long-Term Testing Results,” Fraunhofer ENAS Micro Materials Center, Continental, and Siemens.
Emerging Technologies & Fundamentals
- Ziqi Yu, Zongqing Ren, Jaeho Lee, “Investigation of Thermal Metamaterials Based on Nanoporous Silicon Using Ray Tracing and Finite Element Simulations,” University of California — Irvine.
Outstanding Papers
Component Level Thermal Management
- Prabhakar Subrahmanyam, Arun Krishnamoorthy, “Micro-Scale Nozzled Jet Heat Transfer Distributions and Flow Field Entrainment Effects Directly on Die,” Intel.
System Level Thermal Management
- Anirudh Krishna, Jin Myung Kim, Juyoung Leem, Michael Cai Wang, SungWoo Nam Jaeho Lee, “Dynamic Radiative Thermal Management by Crumpled Graphene,” University of California — Irvine and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
Mechanics and Reliability
- A R Nazmus Sakib, Richard S Lai, Sandeep Shantaram, “Effects of Solder Mask Application Method on the Reliability of an Automotive Flip Chip PBGA Microcontroller,” NXP Semiconductors.
Emerging Technologies & Fundamentals (Tie)
- Martinus Arie, David Hymas, Farah Singer, Amir Shooshtari, Michael Ohadi, “Performance Characterization of a Novel Cross-Media Composite Heat Exchanger for Air-to-Liquid Applications,” University of Maryland.
- Aaditya Anand Candadai, Justin Weibel, Amy Marconnet, “A Measurement Technique for Thermal Conductivity Characterization of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Yarns Using High-Resolution Infrared Microscopy,” Purdue University.
We are also pleased to announce that the ITherm 2019 Proceedings have been forwarded to the IEEE Xplore Digital Library and will be posted soon. 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.
