IC packaging and cooling have become the key to improve chip performance

  With the continuous improvement of the training and inference application demand of terminal products such as servers and data centers in the AI field, HPC chip is driven to develop in 2.5d/3d IC packaging.

   Taking the 2.5d/3d IC packaging architecture as an example, the integration of memory and processor in cluster or up-down 3D stacking will help to improve the computing efficiency; In the part of heat dissipation mechanism, high thermal conductivity layer can be introduced into the upper end of memory HBM or liquid cooling method, so as to improve the relevant heat transfer and chip computing power.

      The current 2.5d/3d IC packaging structure does extend the linewidth of high-order SOC single-chip system, which can not be miniaturized at the same time, such as memory, communication RF and processor chip. With the rapid growth of the application of terminals such as server and data center in HPC chip market, it drives the continuous expansion of application scenarios such as AI field training) and inference, driving such as TSMC, Intel Samsung, Sunmoon and other wafer manufacturers, IDM manufacturers and packaging and testing OEM and other large manufacturers have devoted themselves to the development of relevant packaging technology.

  According to the improvement direction of 2.5d/3d IC packaging architecture, it can be roughly divided into two types by cost and efficiency improvement.

1. First, after forming a cluster of memory and processors and using the solution of 3D stacking, we try to solve the problems that processor chips (such as CPU, GPU, ASIC and SOC) are scattered everywhere and can not integrate the operation efficiency. Further, the memory HBM is clustered together, and the data storage and transmission capabilities of each other are integrated. Finally, the memory and processor cluster are stacked up and down in 3D to form an efficient computing architecture, so as to effectively improve the overall computing efficiency.

2. The anti-corrosion liquid is injected into the processor chip and memory to form a liquid cooling solution, trying to improve the thermal conductivity of heat energy through liquid transportation, so as to increase the heat dissipation speed and operation efficiency.

  At present, the packaging architecture and heat dissipation mechanism are not ideal, and this will become an important improvement index to improve the computing power of the chip in the future.