The
heat dissipation
All electronic devices and circuitry generate excess heat and thus require thermal management to improve reliability and prevent premature failure. The amount of heat output is equal to the power input, if there are no other energy int ...
in
integrated circuits
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...
problem has gained an increasing interest in recent years due to the miniaturization of
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...
devices. The temperature increase becomes relevant for cases of relatively small-cross-sections wires, because such temperature increase may affect the normal behavior of semiconductor devices.
Joule heating
Joule heating is a predominant heat mechanism for heat generation in integrated circuits
[T. Bechtold, E. V. Rudnyi and J. G Korvink, "Dynamic electro-thermal simulation of microsystems—a review," Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. vol. 15, pp. R17–R31, 2005] and is an undesired effect.
Propagation
The governing equation of the physics of the problem to be analyzed is the heat diffusion equation. It relates the flux of heat in space, its variation in time and the generation of power.
:
Where
is the
thermal conductivity
The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to conduct heat. It is commonly denoted by k, \lambda, or \kappa.
Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low thermal conductivity than in materials of high thermal ...
,
is the density of the medium,
is the specific heat
:
the
thermal diffusivity
In heat transfer analysis, thermal diffusivity is the thermal conductivity divided by density and specific heat capacity at constant pressure. It measures the rate of transfer of heat of a material from the hot end to the cold end. It has the SI ...
and
is the rate of heat generation per unit volume. Heat diffuses from the source following equation (
q:diffusion and solution in a
homogeneous medium of (
q:diffusion has a
Gaussian distribution.
See also
*
Thermal simulations for integrated circuits
Miniaturizing components has always been a primary goal in the semiconductor industry because it cuts production cost and lets companies build smaller computers and other devices. Miniaturization, however, has increased dissipated power per unit ar ...
*
Thermal design power
The thermal design power (TDP), sometimes called thermal design point, is the maximum amount of heat generated by a computer chip or component (often a CPU, GPU or system on a chip) that the cooling system in a computer is designed to dissipate ...
*
Thermal management in electronics
All electronic devices and circuitry generate excess heat and thus require thermal management to improve reliability and prevent premature failure. The amount of heat output is equal to the power input, if there are no other energy int ...
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heat Generation In Integrated Circuits
Integrated circuits
Electrical power control