Forced convective interlayer cooling in vertically integrated packages

The heat removal capability of area-interconnect-compatible interlayer cooling in vertically integrated, high-performance chip stacks was characterized with de-ionized water as coolant. Correlation-based predictions and computational fluid dynamic modeling of cross-flow heat-removal structures show that the coolant temperature increase due to sensible heat absorption limits the cooling performance at hydraulic diameters les 200 mum. An experimental investigation with uniform and double-side heat flux at Reynolds numbers les 1000 and heat transfer areas of 1 cm² was carried out to identify the most efficient interlayer heat-removal structure. Parallel plate, microchannel, pin fin, and their combinations with pins using in-line and staggered configurations with round and drop-like shapes at pitches ranging from 50 to 200 mum and fluid structure heights of 100 to 200 mum were tested. A hydrodynamic flow regime transition responsible for a local junction temperature minimum was observed for pin fin inline structures. The experimental data was extrapolated to predict maximal heat flux in chip stacks with a 4-cm² heat transfer area. The performance of interlayer cooling strongly depends on this parameter, and drops from >200 W/cm² at 1 cm2 and >50 mum interconnect pitch to <100 W/cm² at 4 cm².