Cooling of Thermal Enhanced BGA Package Using Foam Metal Heat Sinks

This study reported thermal performance of a thermally enhanced plastic ball grid array (PBGA), namely T2-BGA™ which incorporates a heat slug in package, with a foam-metal heat sink on the top of this package. Experimental measurement of junction-to-ambient thermal resistance is performed in accordance with the SEMI standards of G38-0996 and G42-0996 for thermal characterization of BGA packages. Allowable power dissipation is subject to the constraint of junction temperature (Tj) at 95°C and ambient temperature (Ta) in chassis at 35 °C under free and forced air (0 ∼ 3 m/s) conditions. Based on this constraint, allowable power dissipation of a regular PBGA with a commercial pin fin heat sink under free and 3 m/s forced air is 5.45 W and 9.17 W compared with those of T2-BGA with a foam heat sink of 6.80 W and 19.6 W respectively. This results show that T2-BGA™ with a foam heat sink offers enormous potential to high power package applications.