An investigation of thermal enhancement on flip chip plastic BGA packages using CFD tool

This paper demonstrates the advantage of applying Predictive Engineering in the thermal assessment of a 279 inputs/outputs (I/Os), six-layer, depopulated array flip chip PBGA package. Thermal simulation was conducted using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool to analyze the heat transfer and fluid flow in a free convection environment. This study first describes the modeling techniques on a multilayer substrate, thermal vias, solder bumps, and printed circuit board (PCB). For a flip chip package without any thermal enhancement, more than 90% of the total power was conducted from the front surface of the die through the solder ball interconnects to the substrate, then to the board. To enhance the thermal performance of the package, the heat transfer area from the backside of the die needs to increase dramatically. Several thermal enhancing techniques were examined. These methods included a copper heat spreader with various thicknesses and with thermal pads, metallic lid, overmolded with and without a heat spreader, and with heat sink. An aluminum lid and a heat sink gave the best improvement; followed by a heat spreader with thermal pads. Both methods reduced thermal resistance by an average of 50%. Detailed analyses on heat flow projections are discussed.