Effect of package construction on thermal performance of plastic IC packages

This paper explores the effect of package geometry and material on the junction-to-ambient thermal resistance (/spl Theta//sub ja/) of plastic IC packages. Only internal package geometry changes are explored here for packages operating under still-air ambient conditions. Among the factors explored in this paper are drop-in heat spreaders, high thermal conductivity mold compounds and die-attach epoxies, and the effect of die-attach delamination. Forced convection and external heatsinks are not studied here, as they can form an extensive topic of study on their own.