Thermal analysis of direct chip mount electronic systems using ADINA-T

Abstract

The trend towards high density chip packaging of printed circuit boards, and the use of application-specific semiconductors in control applications has resulted in ever increasing cooling requirements for electronic systems. One response to this cooling problem is to mount the semiconductor chip directly to a high conductivity substrate to assist in the cooling capabilities. The design of direct mount chip attach systems requires proper balancing of two design issues to ensure a satisfactory system: (i) adequate cooling of the electronic chip assemblies, and (ii) thermal expansion match between the chip assemblies and the substrate to ensure structural integrity during operation. Techniques using the ADINA-T thermal analysis program which have been found to provide suitable thermal modeling of direct chip attach systems are discussed. Correlation between model and experimental data is provided, and guidance on which direct mount systems can be adequately modeled is described. Several studies of direct chip mount systems are detailed, and examples of the evaluations which can be performed using ADINA-T are discussed. Finally, the technology required to extend the range of electronic systems which can be effectively modeled is discussed.