Thermal Co-Design of Exascale Computing System in Packages (SiPs)

Exascale computing systems will use electronic System in Package (SiP) modules in which electronic devices are stacked on top of one another, resulting in significantly higher heat generation density as well as less access to the heat sink placed on top of the package. In this work, in order to keep the SiP component temperatures within the allowable limits, various package designs, module layouts, and liquid-cooled thermal management solutions which use through-silicon vias (TSVs) have been investigated via simulation studies performed using COMSOL 5.2, a multi-physics modeling software package. We have identified package and module design decision trade-offs in order to minimize thermal resistance and pressure drop, thus maximizing the cooling solution efficiency. Finally, aggregating our individual findings into a comprehensive implementation, we demonstrate a substantially more efficient cooling solution.