Ball-grid-array package thermal management

One of the main driving forces for the electronic marketplace has been the rapidly increasing power of the central processing unit (CPU) and related components for personal computers (PC). The power being consumed by PC microprocessors has been steadily increasing from a few watts for X386 to more than 35 W for “Pentium” processors. They are scheduled to reach over 100 W within the next few years. These powerful chips are typically packaged in pin or ball grid array packages, either in flip-chip or traditional die-attach modes. The thermal management is extremely challenging, both inside and outside the package. This paper compares some current solutions and interface materials in terms of performance, manufacturability and long-term reliability