Numerical Investigation of Thermal Management and Structural Integrity of MCM-BGA array using Porous MCHS

Abstract

Effective thermal management of packaging technology is a critical factor for the reliable functioning of electronic equipment. This study explores and compares the thermal management of MCM-BGA array using cooling methods, including heat spreader coupled with different microchannel heat sinks (MCHS) configurations. Numerical analysis has been conducted to evaluate various setups’ thermal and structural performance using COMSOL Multiphysics software. The study evaluates temperature profiles and thermal stress distributions to determine the efficacy of the proposed cooling solutions. The CHT analysis of the designed MCM-BGA package equipped with all-sided porous MCHS reduces 58 degrees from the hotspots compared to the baseline configuration comprising only a heat spreader. Similarly, the thermo-structural analysis revealed that a package encompassing all-sided porous MCHS reduces significant 125 MPa maximal thermal stress, representing 51.7% improvement compared to the baseline setup. The resultant optimized configuration of all-sided porous MCHS obtained using the Nelder Mead optimization algorithm improves the Figure of Merit (FOM) and heat transfer coefficient by 10.7% and 23.8%, respectively, at a Reynolds number of 700. Additionally, fatigue analysis indicates the all-sided optimized porous package configuration is best for maintaining the structural integrity and reliability of the solders, demonstrating the highest cycles to failure for the critical solders.