Co-chair:  Vadim Gektin (Sun Microsystems)
Co-chair:  Je-Young Chang (Intel Corporation)

The 2004 iNEMI Roadmap identified heat transfer as a developing concern for the industry.  iNEMI has established the Thermal Management TIG to perform gap analysis and identify potential new iNEMI projects that cover thermal management issues from chip level to building level.

Thermal management is a key enabling technology in the development of advanced microelectronic packages and systems.  Increased chip power, driven by denser circuitry and higher clock rates, is causing increased heat fluxes at the chip level.  These increases in chip-level power cause module-level heat generation to rise.  Modules are combined into systems (a box, or rack or separate unit of some type) and then systems are often grouped into larger facilities, such as data centers or computer rooms, and thermal demands at the chip level are propagated to the building level.  Traditionally, thermal solutions have addressed the immediate level of concern (e.g., desktop thermal solutions have been focused on the processor), and there has been little concern about the impact of that design upon the subsequent higher-level assemblies.  There is a need for integrated and system-level thermal solutions.  Another critical need is for proactive consideration of thermal challenges earlier in the design process.  The only way to succeed is to integrate the electrical, mechanical and thermal design processes at a higher level.

This new TIG has support from a wide range of iNEMI member companies that are involved in all facets of thermal management issues.  Potential projects include:  limits of air-cooling in data centers; impact of liquid cooling; quiet, high-performance fans; reliable, low-cost pumps for liquid cooling systems; 3D package cooling technologies; and low and transitional turbulence modeling assessment in cooling design CFD modeling.

New initiatives
Liquid cooling