Thermal management in semiconductor device packaging

Theoretical, design and hardware techniques available for thermal management of microelectronic devices are reviewed. The key parameters being included in analytical models are the power consumption, the ambient and junction temperatures and the thermal resistance. Finite difference models are employed in numerical analysis during the design process, with comparisons to data, particularly temperature and coolant flow rates, gathered with prototype devices. Plastic in-line packages (DIP), ceramic chip carriers (CCC) and pin-grid array (PGA) packages have been devised to obtain thermal management through appropriate microelectronic packaging design. Future VLSI devices will rely on techniques such as microchannel cooling to achieve maximum thermal removal density for handling the expected thermal loads.