Effective Temperature Control Approach for ICs

Abstract

This paper deals with a technique of dynamic control of power supplying Peltier cooler and fan with respect to generated heat inside chip. RC equivalent model of complex thermal structure is created and implemented in Spice environment. Theoretical investigations of control method and simulation results are presented. The influence of heat sink lateral dimensions and materials on chip temperature value are also evaluated. The proposed approach described in this article enables to keep the chip temperature intervals as low as possible. Hence, this increases the structure reliability and reduces mechanical stress of semiconductor structure. The thermal control technique reduces the cooling energy consumption while reducing risk of condensation. It continuously regulates the power supply of heat pump and active fan based on the information about die power consumption and heat sink temperature. Therefore, the joule heating (heat generated inside Peltier cooler) cannot dominate the cooling capability. Intel's Ivy Bridge processor has been taken into account as a real example used for the investigation.