A Numerical Study of the Thermal Performance of a Tape Ball Grid Array (TBGA) Package

Abstract

This paper deals with the thermal management of a TBGA chip carrier package. In TBGA packages the backside of the chip is available for heat sink or heat spreader (cover plate) attach. By attaching a heat sink directly to the chip and using a thin layer of high thermal conductivity adhesive, a very low internal thermal resistance can be achieved. The package is attached to an organic card and placed vertically in a channel. A three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer model is used, accounting for conduction and radiation in the package and card and convection in the surrounding air. A simplified turbulence model is developed to predict temperatures in the low Re turbulence regime. A parametric study is performed to evaluate the effects of card design, air velocities, interconnect thermal conductivities and thermal radiation on the chip junction temperatures. An experimental study was also conducted to verify the model. Even though the geometry is highly complex due to the multilayer construction of the module and the card, agreement between the model and the experimental measurement is excellent. It was shown that radiation heat transfer can be an equally significant mode as convection in the natural convection regime. [S1043-7398(00)01302-5]