Transient thermal analysis as measurement method for IC package structural integrity

Practices of IC package reliability testing are reviewed briefly, and the application of transient thermal analysis is examined in great depth. For the design of light sources based on light emitting diode （LED） efficient and accurate reliability testing is required to realize the potential lifetimes of 105 h. Transient thermal analysis is a standard method to determine the transient thermal impedance of semiconductor devices, e.g. power electronics and LEDs. The temperature of the semiconductor junctions is assessed by time-resolved measurement of their forward voltage （Vf）. The thermal path in the IC package is resolved by the transient technique in the time domain. This enables analyzing the structural integrity of the semiconductor package. However, to evaluate thermal resistance, one must also measure the dissipated energy of the device （i.e., the thermal load） and the k-factor. This is time consuming, and measurement errors reduce the accuracy. To overcome these limitations, an innovative approach, the relative thermal resistance method, was developed to reduce the measurement effort, increase accuracy and enable automatic data evaluation. This new way of evaluating data simplifies the thermal transient analysis by eliminating measurement of the k-factor and thermal load, i.e. measurement of the lumen flux for LEDs, by normalizing the transient Vf data. This is especially advantageous for reliability testing where changes in the thermal path, like cracks and delaminations, can be determined without measuring the k-factor and thermal load. Different failure modes can be separated in the time domain. The sensitivity of the method is demonstrated by its application to high- power white InGaN LEDs. For detailed analysis and identification of the failure mode of the LED packages, the transient signals are simulated by time-resolved finite element （FE） simulations. Using the new approach, the transient thermal analysis is enhanced to a powerful tool for reliability investigation of semiconductor packages in accelerated lifetime tests and for inline inspection. This enables automatic data analysis of the transient thermal data required for processing a large amount of data in production and reliability testing. Based on the method, the integrity of LED packages can be tested by inline, outgoing inspection and the lifetime prediction of the products is improved.

Performance of Chemical Vapor Deposited Boron-Doped AlN Thin Film as Thermal Interface Materials for 3-W LED: Thermal and Optical Analysis

Boron-doped aluminum nitride （B-AlN） thin films were synthesized on Al substrates by using chemical vapor deposition method by changing the synthesis parameters and were used as thermal interface material for high power light emitting diode （LED）. The B-AlN thin film-coated Al substrate was used as heat sink and studied the performance of high power LED at various driving currents. The recorded transient cooling curve was evaluated to study the rise in junction temperature （Tj）, total thermal resistance （gth_tot） and the substrate thermal resistance （Rth_sub） of the given LED. From the results, the B-AlN thin film （prepared at process 4） interfaced LED showed low Rth-tot and Tj value for all driving currents and observed high difference in Rth_tot （△Rth_tot =2.2 K/W） at 700 mA when compared with the Rth-tot of LED attached on bare Al substrates （LED/Al）. The Tj of LED was reduced considerably and observed 4.7 ℃ as ATj for the film prepared using process 4 condition when compared with LED/Al boundary condition at 700 mA. The optical performance of LED was also tested for all boundary conditions and showed improved lux values for the given LED at 700 mA where B-AlN thin film was synthesized using optimized flow of Al, B and N sources with minimized B and N content. The other optical parameters such as color correlated temperature and color rendering index were also measured and observed low difference for all boundary conditions. The observed results are suggested to use B-AlN thin film as efficient solid thin film thermal interface materials in high power LED.

Effect of junction temperature on the large-signal properties of a 94 GHz silicon based double-drift region impact avalanche transit time device

The authors have developed a large-signal simulation technique extending an in-house small-signal simulation code for analyzing a 94 GHz double-drift region impact avalanche transit time device based on silicon with a non-sinusoidal voltage excitation and studied the effect of junction temperature between 300 and 550 K on the large-signal characteristics of the device for both continuous wave （CW） and pulsed modes of operation. Results show that the large-signal RF power output of the device in both CW and pulsed modes increases with the increase of voltage modulation factor up to 60%, but decreases sharply with further increase of voltage modulation factor for a particular junction temperature; while the same parameter increases with the increase of junction temperature for a particular voltage modulation factor. Heat sinks made of copper and type-IIA diamond are designed to carry out the steady-state and transient thermal analysis of the device operating in CW and pulsed modes respectively. Authors have adopted Olson＇s method to carry out the transient analysis of the device, which clearly establishes the superiority of type-IIA diamond over copper as the heat sink material of the device from the standpoint of the undesirable effect of frequency chirping due to thermal transients in the pulsed mode.