At the time of this writing (mid-November), it appears that significant progress has been made toward avoiding a global financial collapse and that we now have a good chance of avoiding that fate. Unfortunately, it is now clear that, no matter how the credit markets fare, there will be a recession. Even after the world economy picks up again, the world will certainly face an … [Read more...]
Power Map Calculations Using Image Sources and Superposition
Introduction In the past, thermal engineers were content to calculate a single junction temperature in the thermal characterization of an integrated circuit chip in a package. In recent years, as power levels have increased, more attention has been paid to the calculation of local temperature variations on a chip. This is necessary to adequately account for high-heat-flux … [Read more...]
Heat Spreading Calculations Using Thermal Circuit Elements
Heat Spreading Calculations Using Thermal Circuit Elements Bruce Guenin, Associate Technical Editor Introduction In electronics cooling applications, there are numerous changes of scale from the chip level to the system level. This is characteristic of the signaling, power, and thermal infrastructures in electronic systems. Because of this, it is inevitable that the heat flow … [Read more...]
Thermal Strain in Semiconductor Packages, Part II
Introduction This Calculation Corner continues Part I, published in the previous issue [1]. Part I described the construction of a typical flip-chip package configuration for high-power chips, consisting of a laminate assembly of materials adhesively bonded together and having different Coefficients of Thermal Expansion (CTE). The process of bonding these different materials … [Read more...]
Thermal Strain In Semiconductor Packages, Part I
Introduction Silicon became the semiconductor of choice for ICs because of its electrical properties, not because of its mechanical properties. In the earliest days of ICs when chips were small and power levels were low, the mechanical properties of silicon were of little consequence. However, for some time, the opposite situation has been the norm. Now, there are much larger … [Read more...]
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