Thermal Characterization Laboratory

The Thermal Characterization Laboratory covers all aspects concerning experimentation in thermal management, local electro-thermal characterization, and reliability/ruggedness studies addressed in IMB-CNM’s Power Systems Integration and Reliability research sub-line. In addition, these activities could find synergies with other fields dealing with the electro-thermal characterization in the nano-microelectronic scenario.

Main activities

In this framework, the main activities of the Thermal Characterization Laboratory aim at:

Thermal management design and assessment at system level of power devices or systems (thermal conductivity extraction, temperature measurement for simulation assessment),
Thermal characterization of packaged devices and systems (thermal impedance and resistance extraction);
Local electro-thermal characterization at die level (applicable to low power integrated systems, e.g. Systems-on-Chip)

Optical methods for depth-resolved characterization at chip level: Free-Carrier Absorption, Internal IR Laser Deflection, Fabry-Perot Interference,
Surface-resolved electro-thermal characterization: IR thermography, Liquid crystal thermography, CCD-thermo-reflectance thermography.

Debugging and design for ruggedness of new devices and monitoring electrical and thermal performances degradation due to ageing or overloading events:

Location of physical failure signatures at die level,
Thermal performances degradation due to packaging ageing, local electrical degradation of the device.
Study of modulated heat sources by lock-in detection for non-invasive evaluation of structural defaults, extraction of Figures of Merit in Frequency (FOMs) from IC/device internal nodes, and local physical parameters in devices

Techniques

Analysis of thermal behavior of power devices and systems (hot-spots, thermal coupling, reliability, modeling, etc.), using specific thermography techniques (IR detection, CCD-thermo-reflectance, or Fabry-Perot interferometry).
Thermal parameters extraction systems for integrated power systems thermal management (modules, substrates, modeling, simulation parameters, etc.): material thermal conductivity and packaged devices thermal impedance and resistance measurements.
Analysis of electro-thermal behavior at device level ("hot-spots", reliability, carrier lifetime, modeling, etc.) using techniques based on optical deflection (IIR-LD), absorption (FCA) and interferometer (FPI) of an IR laser beam.
Failure signature location and microelectronic systems debugging by sensing thermal fields.