Thermal Challenges and Solutions of M.2 Solid State Drive

A comprehensive simulation study is introduced to explore thermal enhancement solutions for M.2 solid state drives (SSD). A transient simulation model was built with Icepak to include factors at SSD printed circuit board (PCB) level, PCB assembly level, and host level. The PCB level factor is Cu layer count. The factors at PCB assembly level are heat spreading tape material and tape coverage position. The host level factor is thermal interface material. Multiple runs of simulation were conducted with different combination of the settings of each factor using design of experiment approach. The first step of the simulation was a steady state simulation with the SSD under idle power. Using the resultant temperature and flow field of the first step as the starting point, transient simulation was performed with the full performance power turned on to see how much time it took before component junction temperatures reached their limits. The results of simulation were analyzed with JMP [1], a statistical analysis software, to rank the relative significance of all the factors. Adding thermal interface material at the host level is the most significant one among all factors considered in the study. The next two factors with high significance are heat spreading material and PCB layer count.