Thermal characterization of an alumina ceramic MCM with conductive slugs

Summary form only given. The authors describe the thermal characterization of a high-performance air-cooled MCM (multichip module) packaging technology that uses high thermal conductivity slug inserts with a cofired alumina/tungsten ceramic body. The slugs function as a heat conduction medium from the chips to a heat sink. The authors examine the performance limitations and tradeoffs of various material options for the package, such as slug, die attach, and heat sink attach materials. They also examine the effect of different operating conditions such as varying power density between chips and external cooling with different types of air-cooled heat sinks for tangential flow or impingement flow as a function of the air flow rate. A combination of modeling and experimental measurements were used to thermally characterize a four-chip MCM test vehicle. This study illustrates the need to use measurements to refine detailed 3D finite-element models to achieve accurate thermal predictions for the wide variety of conditions and materials needed to characterize a packaging technology