Showing papers in "Journal of Electronic Packaging in 2006"

Metal Foam and Finned Metal Foam Heat Sinks for Electronics Cooling in Buoyancy-Induced Convection

Abstract: In this paper, we present our recent experimental results on buoyancy-induced convection in aluminum metal foams of different pore densities [corresponding to 5, 10, 20, and 40 pores per in. (PPI)] and porosities (0.89-0.96). The results show that compared to a heated surface, the heat transfer coefficients in these heat sinks are five to six times higher. However, when compared to commercially available heat sinks of similar dimensions, the enhancement is found to be marginal. The experimental results also show that for a given pore size, the heat transfer rate increases with porosity, suggesting the dominant role played by conduction in enhancing heat transfer. On the other hand, if the porosity is held constant, the heat transfer rate is found to be lower at higher pore densities. This can be attributed to the higher permeability with the larger pores, which allows higher entrainment of air through the porous medium. New empirical correlations are proposed for the estimation of Nusselt number in terms of Rayleigh and Darcy numbers. We also report our results on novel finned metal foam heat sinks in natural convection. Experiments were conducted on aluminum foams of 90% porosity with 5 and 20 PPI with one, two, and four aluminum fins inserted in the foam. All of these heat sinks were fabricated in-house. The results show that the finned metal foam heat sinks are superior in thermal performance compared to the normal metal foam and conventional finned heat sinks. The heat transfer increases with an increase in the number of fins. However, the relative enhancement is found to decrease with each additional fin. The indication is that there exists an optimum number of fins beyond which the enhancement in heat transfer, due to increased surface area, is offset by the retarding effect of overlapping thermal boundary layers. Similar to normal metal foams, the 5 PPI samples are found to give higher values of h compared to the 20 PPI samples due to higher permeability of the porous medium. Future work is planned to arrive at the optimal heat sink configuration for even larger enhancement in heat transfer.

Thermal Phenomena in Nanoscale Transistors

Abstract: As CMOS transistor gate lengths are scaled below 45 nm, thermal device design is becoming an important part of microprocessor engineering. Decreasing dimensions lead to nanometer-scale hot spots in the drain region of the device, which may increase the drain series and source injection electrical resistances. Such trends are accelerated with the introduction of novel materials and nontraditional transistor geometries, like ultrathin body, surround-gate, or nanowire devices, which impede heat conduction. Thermal analysis is complicated by subcontinuum phenomenan including ballistic electron transport, which reshapes the hot spot region compared with classical diffusion theory predictions. Ballistic phonon transport from the hot spot and between material boundaries impedes conduction cooling. The increased surface to volume ratio of novel transistor designs also leads to a larger contribution from material boundary thermal resistance. In this paper we survey trends in transistor geometries and materials, from bulk silicon to carbon nanotubes, along with their implications for the thermal design of electronic systems.

Viability of Dynamic Cooling Control in a Data Center Environment

Abstract: Data center thermal management challenges have been steadily increasing over the past few years due to rack level power density increases resulting from system level compaction. These challenges have been compounded by antiquated environmental control strategies designed for low power density installations and for the worst-case heat dissipation rates in the computer systems. Current data center environmental control strategies are not energy efficient when applied to the highly dynamic, high power density data centers of the future. Current techniques control the computer room air conditioning units (CRACs) based on the return air temperature of the air-typically set near 20°C. Blowers within the CRACs are normally operated at maximum flow rate throughout the operation of the data center unless they are equipped with nonstandard variable frequency drives. At this setting the blowers typically provide significantly more airflow than is required by the equipment racks to prevent recirculation and the subsequent formation of hot spots. This strategy tends to be overly conservative and inefficient. As an example air entering a given system housed in a rack undergoes a temperature rise of 15°C due to the heat added by the system. The return air control strategy strives to keep the entire room at a fixed temperature. Therefore in a typical data center the CRAC supply temperature, and hence the air entering the racks, is 13-15°C and the CRAC return is 20-22°C. At these settings the CRACs can consume almost as much energy as the computer equipment they are cooling [Friedrich, R., Patel, C.D., 2002, "Towards Planetary Scale Computing - Technical Challenges for Next Generation Internet Computing, " THERMES 2002, Santa Fe, NM; The Uptime Institute, "Heat Density Trends in Data Processing, Computer Systems and Telecommunications Equipment, " White Paper issued by The Uptime Institute, 2000.]. Experiments conducted by the authors using these CRAC settings show that nearly 0.7 W is consumed by the environmental control system for every 1 W of heat dissipated by the computer equipment in the authors' experimental facility indicating that the energy efficiency of standard data center environmental control systems is poor. This study examines several opportunities for improving thermal management and energy performance of data centers with automatic control. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate how simple, modular control strategies can be implemented. Furthermore, experimental data is presented that show it is possible to improve the energy performance of a data center by up to 70% over current standards while maintaining proper thermal management conditions.

Numerical Analysis of Blockage and Optimization of Heat Transfer Performance of Fractal-like Microchannel Nets

Abstract: The conjugate fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of fractal-like microchannel nets embedded in a disk-shape heat sink are investigated using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach A constant heat flux is applied to the top wall of the heat sink The intrinsic advantages of fractal-like microchannel nets such as low flow resistance, temperature uniformity, and reduced danger of blockage compared with the traditional parallel channel nets are demonstrated In addition, various optimized designs with parameters such as the number of branches, number of branching levels, and number of channels that reach the center of the disk are addressed in this context

Experimental and Computational Investigation of Flow Development and Pressure Drop in a Rectangular Micro-channel

Abstract: Flow development and pressure drop were investigated both experimentally and computationally for adiabatic single-phase water flow in a single 222 μm wide, 694 μm deep, and 12 cm long rectangular micro-channel at Reynolds numbers ranging from 196 to 2215. The velocity field was measured using a micro-particle image velocimetry system. A three-dimensional computational model was constructed which provided a detailed description of liquid velocity in both the developing and fully developed regions. At high Reynolds numbers, sharp entrance effects produced pronounced vortices in the inlet region that had a profound influence on flow development downstream. The computational model showed very good predictions of the measured velocity field and pressure drop. These findings prove the conventional Navier-Stokes equation accurately predicts liquid flow in micro-channels, and is therefore a powerful tool for the design and analysis of micro-channel heat sinks intended for electronic cooling.

The Role of Fin Geometry in Heat Sink Performance

Abstract: The following study will examine the effect on overall thermal/fluid performance associated with different fin geometries, including, rectangular plate fins as well as square, circular, and elliptical pin fins. The use of entropy generation minimization, EGM, allows the combined effect of thermal resistance and pressure drop to be assessed through the simultaneous interaction with the heat sink. A general dimensionless expression for the entropy generation rate is obtained by considering a control volume around the pin fin including base plate and applying the conservations equations for mass and energy with the entropy balance. The formulation for the dimensionless entropy generation rate is developed in terms of dimensionless variables, including the aspect ratio, Reynolds number, Nusselt number, and the drag coefficient. Selected fin geometries are examined for the heat transfer, fluid friction, and the minimum entropy generation rate corresponding to different parameters including axis ratio, aspect ratio, and Reynolds number. The results clearly indicate that the preferred fin profile is very dependent on these parameters.

Optimization of data center room layout to minimize rack inlet air temperature

Abstract: In a typical raised floor data center with alternating hot and cold aisles, air enters the front of each rack over the entire height of the rack. Since the heat loads of data processing equipment continue to increase at a rapid rate, it is a challenge to maintain the temperature of all the racks within the stated requirement. A facility manager has discretion in deciding the data center room layout, but a wrong decision will eventually lead to equipment failure. There are many complex decisions to be made early in the design as the data center evolves. Challenges occur such as optimizing the raised floor plenum, floor tile placement, minimizing the data center local hot spots, etc. These adjustments in configuration affect rack inlet air temperatures, which is one of the important keys to effective thermal management. In this paper, a raised floor data center with 12 kW racks is considered. There are four rows of racks with alternating hot and cold aisle arrangement. Each row has six racks installed. Two air-conditioning units supply chilled air to the data center through the pressurized plenum. Effect of plenum depth, floor tile placement, and ceiling height on the rack inlet air temperature is discussed. Plots will be presented over the defined range. A multivariable approach to optimize data center room layout to minimize the rack inlet air temperature is proposed. Significant improvement over the initial model is shown by using a multivariable design optimization approach.

Effects of Dissolved Air on Subcooled Flow Boiling of a Dielectric Coolant in a Microchannel Heat Sink

Abstract: The effects of dissolved air in the dielectric liquid FC-77 on flow boiling in a microchannel heat sink containing ten parallel channels, each 500 m wide and 2.5 mm deep, were experimentally investigated. Experiments were conducted before and after degassing, at three flow rates in the range of 30– 50 ml/ min. The dissolved air resulted in a significant reduction in wall temperature at which bubbles were first observed in the microchannels. Analysis of the results suggests that the bubbles observed initially in the undegassed liquid were most likely air bubbles. Once the boiling process is initiated, the wall temperature continues to increase for the undegassed liquid, whereas it remains relatively unchanged in the case of the degassed liquid. Prior to the inception of boiling in the degassed liquid, the heat transfer coefficients with the undegassed liquid were 300– 500 % higher than for degassed liquid, depending on the flow rate. The heat transfer coefficients for both cases reach similar values at high heat fluxes 120 kW/ m 2 once the boiling process with the degassed liquid was well established. The boiling process induced a significant increase in pressure drop relative to single-phase flow; the pressure drop for undegassed liquid was measured to be higher than for degassed liquid once the boiling process became well established in both cases. Flow instabilities were induced by the boiling process, and the magnitude of the instability was quantified using the standard deviation of the measured pressure drop at a given heat flux. It was found that the magnitude of flow instability increased with increasing heat flux in both the undegassed and degassed liquids, with greater flow instability noted in the undegassed liquid. DOI: 10.1115/1.2351905

Lattice Boltzmann Modeling of Subcontinuum Energy Transport in Crystalline and Amorphous Microelectronic Devices

Abstract: Numerical simulations of time-dependent energy transport in semiconductor thin films are performed using the lattice Boltzmann method applied to phonon transport. The discrete lattice Boltzmann method is derived from the continuous Boltzmann transport equation assuming first gray dispersion and then nonlinear, frequency-dependent phonon dispersion for acoustic and optical phonons. Results indicate that a transition from diffusive to ballistic energy transport is found as the characteristic length of the system becomes comparable to the phonon mean free path. The methodology is used in representative microelectronics applications covering both crystalline and amorphous materials including silicon thin films and nanoporous silica dielectrics. Size-dependent thermal conductivity values are also computed based on steady-state temperature distributions obtained from the numerical models. For each case, reducing feature size into the subcontinuum regime decreases the thermal conductivity when compared to bulk values. Overall, simulations that consider phonon dispersion yield results more consistent with experimental correlations.

Experimental Investigation of Heat Transfer in Impingement Air Cooled Plate Fin Heat Sinks

Abstract: *† Impingement cooling of plate fin heat sinks is examined. Experimental measurements of thermal performance were performed with four heat sinks of various impingement inlet widths, fin spacings, fin heights and airflow velocities. The percent uncertainty in the measured thermal resistance was a maximum of 2.6% in the validation tests. Using a simple thermal resistance model based on developing laminar flow in rectangular channels, the actual mean heat transfer coefficients are obtained in order to develop a simple heat transfer model for the impingement plate fin heat sink. The experimental results are combined into a dimensionless correlation for channel average Nusselt number Nu ~ f(L * ,Pr). We use a dimensionless thermal developing flow length, L * = (L/2) / (DhRePr), as the independent parameter. Results show that Nu ~ * L / 1 , similar to developing flow in parallel channels. The heat transfer model covers the practical operating range of most heat sinks, 0.01 < L * < 0.18. The accuracy of the heat transfer model was found to be within 11% of the experimental data taken on four heat sinks and other experimental data from the published literature at channel Reynolds numbers less than 1200. The proposed heat transfer model may be used to predict the thermal performance of impingement air cooled plate fin heat sinks for design purposes.

Experimental Measurements of the Flow and Heat Transfer of a Square Jet Impinging on an Array of Square Pin Fins

Abstract: An experimental investigation was conducted to explore the flow behavior, pressure drop, and heat transfer due to free air jet impingement on square inline pin fin heat sinks (PFHS) mounted on a plane horizontal surface. A parametrically consistent set of aluminum heat sinks with fixed base dimension of 25 x 25 mm was used, with pin heights varying between 12.5 mm and 22.5 mm, and fin thickness between 1.5 mm and 2.5 mm. A 6:1 contracting nozzle having a square outlet cross sectional area of 25 x 25 mm was used to blow air at ambient temperature on the top of the heat sinks with velocities varying from 2 to 20 m/s. The ratio of the gap between the jet exit and the pin tips to the pin height, the so-called tip clearance ratio, was varied from 0 (no tip clearance) to 1. The stagnation pressure recovered at the center of the heat sink was higher for tall pins than short pins. The pressure loss coefficient showed a little dependence on Re, increased with increasing pin density, and pin diameter, and decreased with increasing pin height and clearance ratio. The overall base-to-ambient thermal resistance decreased with increasing Re number, pin density and pin diameter. Surprisingly, the dependence of the thermal resistance on the pin height and clearance ratio was shown to be mild at low Re, and to vanish at high Re number.

Design of thermal interface material with high thermal conductivity and measurement apparatus

Abstract: A thermal interface material (TIM) is a crucial material for transferring heat from a die to a heatsink. We developed a new TIM composed of carbon nanotubes, silicon thermal grease, and chloroform. The thermal impedance of the TIM was measured using a new device based on thermometer principles to measure thermal impedance and resistance. This device consists of an alumina substrate, titanium tungsten (TiW) layers, gold layers, and thin alumina layers. Then the measured thermal conductivity of the TIM was compared with predictions made by the thermal resistor network model, and the experimental results were found to be consistent with the predictions made by the model.

A Graphite Foams Based Vapor Chamber for Chip Heat Spreading

Abstract: A vapor chamber using high thermal conductivity and permeability graphite foam as a wick has been designed, built, and tested. With ethanol as the working fluid, the vapor chamber has been demonstrated at a heat flux of 80 W/cm 2 . The effects of the capillary limit, the boiling limit, and the thermal resistance in restricting the overall performance of a vapor chamber have been analyzed. Because of the high thermal conductivity of the graphite foams, the modeling results show that the performance of a vapor chamber using a graphite foam is about twice that of one using a copper wick structure. Furthermore, if water is used as the working fluid instead of ethanol, the performance of the vapor chamber will be increased further. Graphite foam vapor chambers with water as the working fluid can be made by treating the graphite foam with an oxygen plasma to improve the wetting of the graphite by the water.

Implementation of Microchannel Evaporator for High-Heat-Flux Refrigeration Cooling Applications

Abstract: While most recently electronic cooling studies have been focused on removing the heat from high-power-density devices, the present study also explores means of greatly decreasing the device operating temperature. This is achieved by incorporating a microchannel heat sink as an evaporator in an R134a refrigeration loop. This system is capable of maintaining device temperatures below 55°C while dissipating in excess of 100W∕cm2. It is shown that while higher heat transfer coefficients are possible with greater mass velocities, those conditions are typically associated with wet compression corresponding to evaporator exit quality below unity and liquid entrainment at the compressor inlet. Wet compression compromises compressor performance and reliability as well as refrigeration cycle efficiency and therefore must be minimized by maintaining only slightly superheated conditions at the compressor inlet, or using a wet-compression-tolerant compressor. A parametric study of the effects of channel geometry on heat sink performance points to channels with small width and high aspect ratio as yielding superior thermal performance corresponding to only a modest penalty in pressure drop.

Prognostics Assessment of Aluminum Support Structure on a Printed Circuit Board

Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of an unexpected failure during vibration and shock life test of an electronic circuit board that has been in use for more than 15 years. During testing, an aluminum bracket used to mount a transistor and provide a path for heat transfer was damaged. Prognostic methods were employed to determine whether the bracket failure could have been predicted prior to the life test. Details of the analytical calculations and modeling results are described in this paper. Results show that the failure could have been predicted before actual testing.

Graphite foam thermal management of a high packing density array of power amplifiers

Abstract: Much focus has been placed on the thermal management of electronics in recent years. An overall reduction in size of electronic components as well as advances in chip technology, leading to ever higher power dissipation, have increased the necessity for innovative cooling designs. While computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software packages have been instrumental in the design of cooling systems, it remains important to validate these CFD predictions through experimentation. The present work focuses on the experimental evaluation of several variations of an air cooled base plate channel design for an array of generic power amplifier modules. In the current study two materials, graphite foam and a microfibrous material, are investigated as mini-heat exchangers to be implemented in the cooling channel of the base plate. Computational simulations have been conducted on some of the proposed designs in order to evaluate certain parameters. Experiments were conducted measuring chip temperatures and the pressure drop across the cooling channel. Effective heat transfer coefficients were also reverse engineered.

An Exergy-Based Figure-of-Merit for Electronic Packages

Abstract: Chip power consumption and heat dissipation have become important design issues because of increased energy costs and thermal management limitations. As a global compute utility evolves, seamless connectivity from the chip to the data center will become increasingly important. The optimization of such an infrastructure will require performance metrics that can adequately capture the thermodynamic and compute behavior at multiple physical length scales. In this paper, an exergy-based figure-of-merit (FoM), defined as the ratio of computing performance (in MIPS) to the thermodynamic performance (in exergy loss), is proposed for the evaluation of computational performance. The paper presents the framework to apply this metric at the chip level. Formulations for the exergy loss in simple air-cooled heat sink packages are developed, and application of the proposed approach is illustrated through two examples. The first comparatively assesses the loss in performance resulting from different cooling solutions, while the second examines the impact of non-uniformity in junction power in terms of the FoM. Modeling results on a 16 mm×24 mm chip indicate that uniform power and temperature profiles lead to minimal package irreversibility (and therefore the best thermodynamic performance). As the nonuniformity of power is increased, the performance rapidly degrades, particularly at higher power levels. Additionally, the competing needs of minimization of junction temperature and minimization of cooling power were highlighted using the exergy-based approach. It was shown that for a given power dissipation and a specific cooling architecture (such as an air-cooled heat sink solution), an optimal thermal resistance value exists beyond which the costs of increased cooling may outweigh any potential benefits in performance. Thus, the proposed FoM provides insight into thermofluidic inefficiencies that would be difficult to gain from a traditional first-law analysis. At a minimum, the framework presented in this paper enables quantitative evaluation of package performance for different nonuniform power inputs and different choices of cooling parameters. At best, since the FoM is scalable, the proposed metric has the potential to enable a chip-to-data-center strategy for optimal resource allocation.

An Evaluation of Gold and Copper Wire Bonds on Shear and Pull Testing

Abstract: In microelectronic packaging technology wire bonding is a common interconnect technique The quality and reliability of wire bonds are generally evaluated by ball shear and stitch pull testing From the load versus time and load versus tool tip displacement plots of the shear test, three regions can be observed Region I primarily exhibits elastic-plastic deformation occur, while crack nucleate in region II which propagates in region III which finally ends in a catastrophic failure Fractographs reveal in the case of gold ball bonds shows fracture occurs in Al bond pad metallization close to Au-Al intermetallics In Cu ball bonds of 1, 2, and 4 ml wire sizes also Al bond pad metallization cracks but penetrate deeper into the pad which indirectly shows that the bonding layer is stronger than that of gold ball bonds Optical microscopic observation of the sheared copper bond surfaces reveal sticking of Al which provides qualitative information of the area of the bond between the ball bond and the bond pad In thermally aged gold ball bonds, the gold above the intermetallic layer fractures The energy required to fracture a gold or copper ball bond of 1 ml wire size is around 370 J/m 2 , while an aged gold ball bond consumes about 520 J/m 2 Void nucleation and coalescence mechanism of ductile fracture takes place in the ball and stitch bonds, however, silicon particles may be the preferential void nucleation sites in bond pad aluminum metallization failures To understand the second bond strength, a stitch pull test was conducted and the results showed the neck of the stitched wire cracks thus leaving behind a tail bond on the lead finger

Thermal Joint Resistance of Polymer-Metal Rough Interfaces

Abstract: A compact analytical model is proposed for predicting thermal joint resistance of rough polymer-metal interfaces in a vacuum. The model assumes plastic deformation at microcontacts and joint temperatures less than the polymer's glassy temperature. The joint resistance includes two components: (i) bulk resistance of the polymer, and (ii) microcontacts resistance, i.e., constriction/spreading resistance of the microcontacts at the interface. Performing a deformation analysis, it is shown that the deformation mode of surface asperities is plastic for most polymers studied. It is observed that the thermophysical properties of the polymer control the thermal joint resistance and the metallic surface properties have a second order effect on the thermal joint resistance. A new nondimensional parameter, the ratio of microcontacts over bulk thermal resistances, is proposed as a criterion to specify the relative importance of the microcontacts thermal resistance. The present model is compared with more than 140 experimental data points collected for a selected number of polymers. The averaged rms relative difference between the model and data is approximately 12.7%.

Test Methods for Silicon Die Strength

Abstract: Recently, the 3D or stacked-die packages become increasingly popular for packaging ICs into a system or subsystem to satisfy the needs of low cost, small form factor, and high performance. For the applications of these packages, IC silicon wafers have to be ground to be relatively thin through the wafer-thinning processes (such as grinding, polishing, and plasma etching). The strength of dies has to be determined for the design requirement and reliability assurance of the packages. From the published data, there still exist some issues, including a large scatter existed in die strength data and difficulties in differentiating the causes of the low strength between from the wafer grinding and from wafer sawing by either the three-point bending or four-point bending test. The purposes of this study are to develop new, reliable, and simple test methods for determination of die strength, in order to improve the data scatter, and to provide a solution for differentiating the factors that affect the variability of die strength for finding out the causes of the weakness of the die strength. In this study, two new test methods, point-loaded circular plate with simple supports test (PLT-I) and point-loaded plate on elastic foundation test (PLT-II), are proposed and then evaluated by testing two groups of silicon dies with different surface conditions. The surface conditions (roughness) of the specimens are determined by atomic force microscopy and correlated to failure strength. The failure forces from both tests have to be modified by using maximum stress obtained from theories or finite element analyses to obtain the failure strength. The test results are compared to each other and further with a widely used four-point bending test. The results suggest that, unlike the four-point bending test suffering the chipping effect, both methods provide very consistent data with a small scatter for each group of specimens and can be used for identifying the effect of surface grinding (roughness) on the die strength. It is also shown that the die strength is highly dependent on the surface roughness. Accordingly, these two methods can provide not only a (biaxial) stress field similar to temperature-loaded die in the packages, but also simple, feasible, reliable, and chipping-free tests for silicon dies of dummy or real IC chips, without strict geometrical limitation, such as beam-type geometry for the three-point or four-point bending test.

Laminar Heat Transfer in Constructal Microchannel Networks With Loops

Abstract: Heat sinks with radial and constructal branching microchannel networks with loops are examined numerically. Radial and constructal networks are embedded in disk-shaped heat sinks. Constructal nets with loops are found to be more robust than the radial ones, when one or more channel segments are blocked. Since complex constructal networks would involve problems in manufacturing, constructal channel nets with loops may be a better choice in engineering applications. Networks with loops and without loops are compared. Results show that the constructal nets with loops provide a great advantage when the structure experiences accidental damage in one or more subchannel segments, since the loop assures the continuity of flow. In spite of blockage, the performance of the network has only a small drop considering the increased pressure drop.

Investigation of Flow and Heat Transfer of an Impinging Jet in a Cross-Flow For Cooling of a Heated Cube

Abstract: The current trends toward the greater functionality of electronic devices are resulting in a steady increase in the amount of heat dissipated from electronic components. Forced channel flow is frequently used to remove heat at the walls of the channel where a PCB with a few high heat dissipating components is located. The overall cooling strategy thus must not only match the overall power dissipation load, but also address the requirements of the "hot" components. In order to cool the thermal load with forced channel flow, excessive flow rates will be required. The objective of this study is to investigate if targeted cooling systems, i.e., an impinging jet in combination with a low velocity channel flow, can improve the thermal performance of the system. The steady-state three-dimensional (3-D) model is developed with the Reynolds-Stress-Model (RSM) as a turbulence model. The geometrical case is a channel with a heated cube in the middle of the base plate and two inlets, one horizontal channel flow, and one vertical impinging jet. The numerical model is validated against experimental data obtained from three well-known cases, two cases with an impinging jet on a flat heated plate, and one case with a heated cube in a single channel flow. The effects of the jet Re and jet to-cross-flow velocity ratio are investigated. The airflow pattern around the cube and the surface temperature of the cube as well as the mean values and local distributions of the heat transfer coefficient are presented.

“Heat Shield”—An Enhancement Device for an Unshrouded, Forced Convection Heat Sink

Abstract: The inherent advantages of forced air cooling have led to the widespread use of fully and partially shrouded heat sinks for the thermal management of high power microprocessors. The superior thermal performance that is achievable in the fully shrouded configuration is accompanied by a significant pressure drop penalty. The concept introduced in the current study, employs a thin sheet-metal "heat shield," placed around a partially shrouded heat sink, to channel the flow directly into the heat sink. A combined numerical and experimental study has shown that the use of this "heat shield" can substantially enhance heat sink thermal performance, in a channel geometry and airflow range typical of commercial chip packages; making it comparable to that of a fully shrouded heat sink, with a substantially lower pressure drop (∼50%). In addition, this thermal enhancement device can be easily retrofitted into existing systems; improving performance without major channel and/or fan modifications.

Heat Sinks With Enhanced Heat Transfer Capability for Electronic Cooling Applications

Abstract: In a competition at Carnegie Mellon University, the mechanical engineering students designed and manufactured 27 heat sinks. The heat sinks were then tested for thermal performance in cooling a mock processor. A heat sink with three rows of 9, 8, and 9 dimpled rectangular fins in staggered configuration performed the best, while having the least total volume (about 25% less than the set value). Validation of the observed thermal performance of this heat sink by experimentation and numerical simulations has motivated the present investigation. Thermal performance of the heat sinks with and without dimples have been evaluated and compared. Results of both the measurements and simulations indicate that dimples do in fact improve heat transfer capability of the heat sinks. However, dimples cause more pressure drop in the air flow. Keeping the total volume of the heat sink and the height of the fins constant and changing the number of the fins and their arrangement show that there is an optimum number of fins for the best performance of the heat sink. The optimum fin numbers are different for inline and staggered arrangements.

Design of Air and Liquid Cooling Systems for Electronic Components Using Concurrent Simulation and Experiment

Abstract: The design of cooling systems for electronic equipment is getting more involved and challenging due to increase in demand for faster and more reliable electronic systems. Therefore, robust and more efficient design and optimization methodologies are required. Conventional approaches are based on sequential use of numerical simulation and experiment. Thus, they fail to use certain advantages of using both tools concurrently. The present study is aimed at combining simulation and experiment in a concurrent manner such that outputs of each approach drive the other to achieve better engineering design in a more efficient way. In this study, a relatively simple problem, involving heat transfer from multiple heat sources simulating electronic components and located in a horizontal channel, was investigated. Two experimental setups were fabricated for air and liquid cooling experiments to study the effects of different coolants. De-ionized water was used as the liquid coolant in one case and air in the other. The effects of separation distance and flow conditions on the heat transfer and on the fluid flow characteristics were investigated in detail for both coolants. Cooling capabilities of different cooling arrangements were compared and the results from simulations and experiments were combined to create response surfaces and to find the optimal values of the design parameters.

Reliability of Lead-Free Solder Joints

Abstract: Reliability of the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment compliant products is investigated in this study. Emphasis is placed on the lead-free solder joint reliability. Solder is the electrical and mechanical "glue" of electronics assemblies. Will lead-free solders provide the characteristics necessary to allow the world to depend on it in the future? This paper cannot answer this question; however, it will help all participants in the soldering world better understand what needs to be done in order to answer this question and plan for the future.

Boiling heat transfer enhancement using a submerged, vibration-induced jet

Abstract: In this paper we describe a new two-phase cooling cell based on channel boiling and a vibration-induced liquid jet whose collective purpose is to delay the onset of critical heat flux by forcibly dislodging the small vapor bubbles that form on the heated surface during nucleate boiling and propelling them into the cooler bulk liquid within the cell. The submerged turbulent vibration-induced jet is generated by a vibrating piezoelectric diaphragm operating at resonance. The piezoelectric driver induces pressure oscillations in the liquid near the surface of the diaphragm, resulting in the time-periodic formation and collapse of cavitation bubbles that entrain surrounding liquid and generate a strong liquid jet. The resultant jet is directed at the heated surface in the channel. The jet enhances boiling heat transfer by removing attached vapor bubbles that insulate the surface and provides additional forced convection heat transfer on the surface. A small cross flow maintained within the cell increases heat transfer even further by sweeping the bubbles downstream, where they condense. In addition, the cross flow keeps the temperature of the liquid within the cell regulated. In the present experiments, the cell dimensions were 51×25×76mm and water was the working liquid. Heat fluxes above 300W∕cm2 were obtained at surface temperatures near 150°C for a horizontal cell.

A Practical Viscoplastic Damage Model for Lead-Free Solder

Abstract: This paper summarizes the results of a program to construct an internal variable viscoplastic damage model to characterize 95.5Sn-3.9Ag-0.6Cu (wt.%) lead-free solder under cyclic thermomechanical loading conditions. A unified model is enhanced to account for a deteriorating microstructure through the use of an isotropic damage evolution equation. Model predictions versus experimental data are given for constant strain-rate tests that were conducted at strain rates of 4.2 X 10 -5 s -1 and 8.3 X 10 -4 s -1 over a temperature range from -25°C to 160°C; cyclic shear tests; and elevated-temperature creep tests. A description is given of how this work supports larger ongoing efforts to develop a predictive capability in materials aging and reliability, and solder interconnect reliability.

Experimental Study of Void Formation in Eutectic and Lead-Free Solder Bumps of Flip-Chip Assemblies

Abstract: This paper reports the experimental findings of void formation in eutectic and lead-free solder joints of flip-chip assemblies. A previous theory indicated that the formation of voids is determined by the direction of heating. The experiments were designed to examine the size and location of voids in the solder samples subject to different heat flux directions. A lead-free solder (Sn-3.5Ag-0.75Cu) and a eutectic solder (63Sn37Pb) were employed in the experiments. Previous experiments [Wang, D., and Panton, R. L., 2005, "Experimental Study of Void Formation in High-Lead Solder Joints of Flip-Chip Assemblies, " ASME J. Electron. Packag., 127(2), pp. 120-126; 2005, "Effect of Reversing Heat Flux Direction During Reflow on Void Formation in High-Lead Solder Bumps," ASME J. Electron. Packag., 127(4), pp. 440-445] employed a high lead solder. 288 solder bumps were processed for each solder. Both eutectic and lead-free solder have shown fewer voids and much smaller void volume than those for high-lead solder. Compared with lead-free solder, eutectic solder has a slightly lower void volume and a lower percentage of defective bumps. For both eutectic and lead-free solders, irrespective of the cooling direction, heating solder samples from the top shows fewer defective bumps and smaller void volume. No significant effect on void formation for either eutectic or lead-free solder was found via reversing the heat flux direction during cooling. Unlike high-lead solder, small voids in eutectic or lead-free solder comprised 35-88% of the total void volume. The final distribution of voids shows a moderate agreement with thermocapillary theory, indicating the significance of the temperature gradient on the formation of voids.

The Effects of Multiple Zincation Process on Aluminum Bond Pad Surface for Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold Deposition

Abstract: Fulltext article is acessible via ASME Online (http://www.asme.org) or connect to A-Z Listing at http://mylib.unimap.edu.my/