Numerical Study of Thermal Performance of FC-PBGA Assembly with Extruded-fin Heatsink

The trend in microelectronics is toward increasingly higher input/output, higher component density and higher electrical performance, which makes thermal enhancement of package performance an increasingly important issue. In both natural and forced convection environments, three-dimensional finite element simulation is used to study thermal performance of a flip-chip plastic ball grid array (FCPBGA) assembly with an extruded-fin heatsink on top of the assembly. The finite element model is complete enough to include key elements such as bumps, solder balls, substrate, printed circuit board, vias and ground planes for both signal and power. Temperature fields are simulated and presented for several FC-PBGA assembly configurations. Thermal resistance is calculated to characterize and compare the thermal performance by considering alternative design parameters of the extruded-fin heatsink and the lid.