TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present description generally relate to the removal of heat from integrated circuit devices, and, more particularly, to thermal management solutions for integrated circuit devices that are embedded in substrates.

BACKGROUND

Higher performance, lower cost, increased miniaturization, and greater packaging density of integrated circuits within integrated circuit devices are ongoing goals of the electronics industry. As these goals are achieved, the integrated circuit devices become smaller. Accordingly, the density of power consumption of electronic components within the integrated circuit devices has increased, which, in turn, increases the average junction temperature of the integrated circuit device. If the temperature of the integrated circuit device becomes too high, the integrated circuits may be damaged or destroyed. This issue becomes even more critical when integrated circuit devices are embedded in the substrate to which they are electrically connected in the formation of an integrated circuit package.

Integrated circuit packages with substrate-integrated devices, such as bumpless build-up layer packages or fan-out packages, are options for decreasing the thickness or Z-height of the integrated circuit package. Instead of a traditional flip chip package wherein the integrated circuit devices are assembled on a surface of a substrate using interconnects, such as solder bumps or balls, the integrated circuit devices are embedded inside the substrate or mold layer, and/or at least some of the package redistribution layers are formed directly over the integrated circuit device (e.g. at the wafer level, the reconstituted wafer level, or the panel level). Such integrated circuit packages with substrate-integrated devices can allow for thinner form factors and better system-in-package (SiP) integration compared to their traditional flip-chip package counterparts.

As will be understood to those skilled in the art, when the integrated circuit device is embedded in the substrate, there is no exposed surface of the integrated circuit device to attach a heat dissipation device, such as a heat spreader and/or an active cooling solution. Thus, the internally positioned integrated circuit device may exceed its temperature limit and be damaged or destroyed, leading to the failure of the entire integrated circuit package.

One option to mitigate this thermal issue is to use integrated circuit devices having thermal throttling control that are capable of reducing their operating frequency and, thus, their power in order to operate at a lower temperature and avoid failures. However, this results in a lower overall performance.

Another option to mitigate thermal issues is to use low-power integrated circuit devices in the substrate that do not require heat dissipation. However, higher power integrated circuit devices are excluded and may have to be attached to the substrate in the traditional manner, leading to increased thickness of the integrated circuit package.

A further option is to use metal layers within the substrate for heat dissipation. However, this is generally not sufficiently efficient due to the thinness of the metal layers compared to a traditional heat dissipation device.

