Comparison of thermal performance between glass and silicon interposers

This paper compares thermal performance of glass and silicon interposers for mobile applications, using computational modeling. It is well known that while silicon is a good thermal conductor, glass is a poor conductor, potentially making it unsuitable for packaging applications. This study proposes to address this short coming of glass by comparing and contrasting with silicon. In this study, for more accurate thermal analysis, effective thermal conductivity of glass interposer substrates is measured by infrared microscopy. Subsequently, equivalent thermal conductivity of TPV (Through Package Via) is calculated through numerical analyses. For comparison of thermal performance of glass and silicon interposers, 2.5D interposer structures with logic and memory chips are considered. The comparison shows that by incorporating thermal vias, junction temperature for the glass interposer decreases by about 60%, while junction temperature for silicon interposer decreases 45%, making both acceptable. However, the glass interposer provides significantly better thermal isolation between logic and memory chips. Glass and silicon interposer structures placed in enclosures, representative of mobile applications, provide comparable performance in the presence of thermal vias.