Thermal Management in the “3D-SiP” world of the Future
Bill Bottoms, President, 3MTS

System-in-Package (SiP) architectures are already appearing in consumer products and growth in SiP products will accelerate to meet the demand for ever more capable consumer products. The pace of adoption is gated by availability of solutions to problems limiting cost, bandwidth and power density while maintaining reliability. Thermal management is one key factor in solving each of these problems. Heterogeneous integration of many different component types, each with their own thermal and mechanical requirements, into the same package poses many thermal management challenges. The problem becomes even more challenging as we incorporate 3D components into SiP products.

The first step is to minimize heat generation within the package. This can only be accomplished using co-design of the devices to be incorporated into the package and the package itself. The second step is to maximize the ability to remove heat from the package. The design of both the components and packages will require new architectures and new materials. Potential solution to meet the thermal management requirements of the “3D-SiP” products of the future will be discussed.

LED Lighting -  A Hot Topic with a Bright Future
Pat Bournes, Senior Development Engineer for Packaging, Philips Lumileds

The LED market is growing rapidly. The CEO of Philips Corporation announced that sales of LED related products grew by 70% last year. LEDs have taken over some markets and are rapidly encroaching on the remaining segments. As solid-state lighting becomes ever more competitive, industry will need to embrace a system level approach to LED lighting.

In this presentation we will begin by discussing the differences between the various lighting technologies- LEDs, Incandescent, fluorescents. Heat and how it is removed represents the main cost driver in most LED bulbs and lighting systems. Heat also directly affects efficiency and lifetimes of the LEDs. Next, technology roadmaps will be presented that show where the LED industry is expected to go in the next few years in terms of efficiency and costs. Lastly, an illustrative LED design will be shown that highlights how LEDs and novel thermal technologies can be combined to transform the lighting industry.

Trends and Competitive Activity in Thermal Management R&D
Kevin Closson, Senior Analyst, Nerac, Inc.

Innovation is the lifeblood of successful companies. For companies in the thermal management space, that innovation comes most often from their research & development programs. However, during the Great Recession beginning in 2008, R&D projects at most companies took major budget cuts. That trend appears to have reversed in the last couple of years. According to an analysis by Nerac, thermal management R&D programs have staged a major turn-around since 2010.

In this presentation, we will review the state of R&D activity in thermal management. We will identify key trends and emerging technologies. An analysis of patent activity in thermal management materials and technologies will be presented. Finally, we’ll focus on specific products and R&D activities at competitors in the thermal management space.

Datacenter and Server Thermal Trends and Challenges
David Copeland, DrEng, Thermal Engineering, Packaging Technology, Oracle Corporation

Environmental concerns and increased energy prices have driven massive improvements in the efficiency of datacenter cooling as well as improvements in the efficiency of server cooling. Within the datacenter, distribution of air to and from the servers, once haphazard, is now achieved by precise ducting.  Increasing the use of outside air for cooling to a greater fraction of the year has become widespread, even mandated by government in some regions.  This has led to higher, though more closely controlled, temperatures of inlet air to the servers as power per rack continues to increase, even as the volume of airflow per unit power has decreased.

Within the servers, power dissipation of the processor die continues to increase rapidly.  While cost performance processors, which constitute the majority of the market, are not anticipated to operate at lower junction temperatures, high performance processors are projected to require significantly lower junction temperatures.  Such increases in power and/or decreases in junction temperature are driving improvements in thermal packaging and cooling, as heatsinks with embedded heatpipes or vapor chambers become standard and liquid cooling migrates closer to the mainstream.  Future improvements in thermal management will be necessary to sustain the ongoing improvements in system performance and energy efficiency.

Thermal Challenges of Complex FPGA/3D ICs for Space Applications
Reza Ghaffarian, Ph.D., Principal Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Advanced electronic packaging technologies in high reliability versions are now being considered for use in a number of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) electronic systems. Thermal management become extremely challenging especially for complex IC packaging developed to meet demands of high-processing power FPGA with significant heat generation and power dissipation and 3D IC technologies with poor heat dissipation paths.  Field programmable gate array (FPGA), which enable programmer to modify software on-the-spot during flight, come in area array configuration with more than thousands of solder balls/columns under the package. These columns are not only need to be correctly joined onto PCB; they also act as the one of the key heat dissipation elements in an space environment since an efficient heat sinking yet to be developed.

The power dissipation induces significant temperature rise on solder joints; it reduces the already weak thermo-mechanical reliability of the attachment/system. Stack IC technologies, more than Moore, which are developed to overcome recent limitation of IC density shrinkage, are also lack heat dissipation robustness mechanisms.  Significant progress in thermal management not only needed for these package; they also become even more critical as miniaturization in IC packaging continues. The key current thermal challenges for advanced complex FPGA and 3D IC systems are presented followed by discussion on important strategies and new emerging technologies being developed to address and manage thermal challenge.

Are you Leveraging DoD Funding?
Ken Goodson, Professor & Vice Chair of Mechanical Engineering,
Stanford University

The past decade brought an impressive surge in thermal management funding from the US government.  Department of defense (DoD) agencies, in particular, have fostered an unprecedented environment for commercially-relevant research by linking companies and academic labs.  While much focus is on defense electronics such as radar, the impacts will be profound throughout the semiconductor industry, particularly for those companies that are keeping track. 

This talk provides a perspective on the new research environment and highlights Stanford DoD programs and corporate linkages on a broad range of topics ranging from radar to smart phones.  The talk will also describe the rapidly evolving thermal management toolset – from ultrafast lasers to diffraction-beating infrared imaging – that is fundamentally changing the research and product development landscape.

Emerging Trends for Thermally Conductive Materials in Electronics Packaging
Radesh Jewram, Sr. R&D Engineer, The Berquist Company

Bergquist Company is engaged in developing thermal management materials for electronics from package through board/ package level in all major markets including consumer electronics, automotive lighting and telecom. There are several unifying trends that are driving materials and technology development: (1) Low out gassing, (2) Non silicone materials, and (3) platform changes without new tooling.  The development of materials has the added complexity in that different markets have different cost sensitivity to both materials and capital investments. We will address why these trends are emerging and Bergquist strategy to address these.

Increased Performance from a Legacy System
Patrick Loney, Fellow Mechanical Engineer, Northrop Grumman

The current and future driver for defense electronics cooling is not a new application of physics, an embryonic technology, or advancement in materials. The dominant driver in the defense electronics cooling industry is, and will be, cost. And costs are reduced by utilizing a legacy system and requiring more performance from that system.

Thermally, this means taking an existing chassis, board, module, or chip, and removing more heat. There are no opportunities to employ augmented cooling subsystems since that would violate the legacy footprint. How does the thermal engineer solve this problem?

Thermal Management Challenges in Mobile Integrated Systems
Ilyas Mohammed Sr. Director and Principal Technologist, Invensas

Thermal management has relied on two main techniques, air cooling and heat transfer components, to maintain desired thermal profiles of components and systems. The air cooling requirement proved to be strong enough to stop the GHz race and hastened multi-core processing. However, the heat transfer components hierarchy, from heat spreaders and heat sinks to heat pipes and fans, is yielding to the mobile computing onslaught where densification is demanding a more optimized and integrated thermal management system. Even though the low power components have helped mitigate the thermal problem, opportunities and challenges lie ahead in the areas of 3D packaging, materials, design and analysis, and system level thermal management.

In this presentation, the future thermal challenges as seen from packaging and sub-systems will be presented. The competing requirements of electrical interconnects, thermal interfaces and mechanical robustness will be discussed. Examples of current and future applications will be shown. Some of the challenges include fabrication and assembly of thermally efficient 3D packages and modules, defects and failures through interconnect interfaces, thermally induced failures such as electromigration and warpage of thin packages, accurate characterization of advanced thermal materials, etc.

Developing Communications Networks – Evolution or Revolution?
Dave Redford, Principal Network Design Engineer, Thermal Management SME, Global Engineering Support AT&T NPE/
The “Kool” Guy

Today’s world of communications is changing not by evolution but by revolution. If a communications service cannot provide complete mobility and full integration with IP enabled data networks like the Internet, then it will be brushed aside.

The challenge for AT&T and other global network providers and by connection each of us is: What enables our customers? What does the phone, car, TV network, security connection, pill minder, refrigerator, and even coffee brewer need for communications; and what is the next network device to dazzle the public’s interest?

One common element behind the connected network is data transport. How do we get the information from one point to another across wireless airwaves and land based fiber networks? Our challenge, and it is a challenge, is to design and produce equipment that will enable us to meet and exceed our customer’s expectations. Better, faster, more reliable networks is just the beginning. We need to make them more versatile, upgradable, deployable, and replaceable. Some of us here today may recall with chagrin the excitement of upgrading your 300 baud modem with a blinding fast 1200 baud one. In contrast your 4G LTE wireless hand held communications device, you call it a phone, reaches speeds nearing 14MPS. Speed IS of the essence. At AT&T we are aggressively building the network of the future – are you?

Mobile Phone Thermal Design Analysis
Sam Zhao, Associate Technical Director, Broadcom Corporation

Public teardown information on iPhone 5, Galaxy S3, and other smart phones are analyzed for thermal design. Thermal design constrains from mismatch of IC thermal ratings, demand for innovative heat dissipation paths design, and opportunities for thermal management devices and materials are also discussed.