Detailed analysis of IC packages using thermal transient testing and CFD modelling for communication device applications

Due to the increased functionality and increasing power load capabilities, the thermal design of communication device applications is becoming more and more crucial in today's handheld device industry. Based on the thermal transient measurement principle, a series of thermal tests can be taken to help thermal engineers better understand the thermal impedance characteristics of high-performance multi-core SoC chips and their packages widely used in communication device applications. The main topic of this article is to share an effective test method for multi-core SoC chip embedded with capacitors in a PoP package. Beside the experimental results the detailed numerical model of the dedicated chips and packages is created in FloTHERM and calibrated against the measurement results.