Thermal characterization of vertical multichip modules MCM-V

This paper describes the thermal characterization of a vertical multichip module (MCM-V) technology. The MCM-V technology encloses a stack of IC's in a three dimensional cube of plastic molding compound, with the inter-chip electrical connections made on the outside faces of the tube. Thermal measurements mere carried out on two different sized modules containing eight specially designed package evaluation test chips. Steady state and transient thermal results are presented. Simulation results are shown for two applications manufactured using the MCM-V technology; a 2 W, 16 chip 256 MBit DRAM module and a 3 W: 9 chip image processing system.