Honglin Sun

The development of semiconductor processes and advanced packaging technology has promoted significant advancements in the miniaturization and integration of electronic devices and systems. However, these developments present substantial challenges to the thermal and stress design of current chips, necessitating novel approaches to address these issues. Traditional finite element simulation-assisted design methods have proven inadequate in meeting the demands of highly integrated electronic devices and microsystems due to their inability to effectively simulate the integration process, cross-scale, and multi-physical field coupling. To address these challenges and shorten the design and development period of electronic devices and microsystems, rigorous thermal and stress testing and analyses must be conducted. A promising approach is the utilization of TTC (thermal test chip) technology, a novel in situ testing method, as the primary tool for thermal/stress testing and analyses of the internal interfaces of electronic devices and microsystems. This technology has emerged as a crucial element in validating thermal/stress processes during packaging, as well as in the design of effective heat dissipation solutions. This paper is structured as follows: first, it introduces the principle of thermal test chips; second, it summarizes the domestic and international research progress and index parameter comparison of thermal test chips, as well as the application progress in chip packaging and heat dissipation; and finally, it looks forward to the application prospect of thermal test chips in microsystem design and advanced packaging.

When chips perform numerous computational tasks or process complex instructions, they generate substantial heat, potentially affecting their long-term reliability and performance. Thus, accurate and effective temperature measurement and management are crucial to ensuring chip performance and lifespan. This paper presents a multi-channel temperature measurement system based on a diode temperature-sensitive array thermal test chip (TTC). The thermal test chip accurately emulates the heat power and thermal distribution of the target chip, providing signal output through row and column address selection. The multi-channel temperature measurement system centers around a microcontroller and includes voltage signal acquisition circuits and host computer software. It enables temperature acquisition, storage, and real-time monitoring of 16 channels in a 4 × 4 array thermal test chip. During experiments, the system uses a constant current source to drive temperature-sensitive diodes, collects diode output voltage through multiplexers and high-precision amplification circuits, and converts analog signals to digital signals via a high-speed ADC. Data transmission occurs via the USB 2.0 protocol, with the host computer software handling data processing and real-time display. The test results indicate that the system accurately monitors chip temperature changes in both steady-state and transient thermal response tests, closely matching measurements from a semiconductor device analyzer, with an error of about 0.67%. Therefore, this multi-channel temperature measurement system demonstrates excellent accuracy and real-time monitoring capability, providing an effective solution for the thermal design and evaluation of high power density integrated circuits.