TECHNIQUES FOR COOLING INTEGRATED SYSTEMS
20200258810 ยท 2020-08-13
Inventors
Cpc classification
H01L2224/80001
ELECTRICITY
H01L2225/06593
ELECTRICITY
H01L2224/80
ELECTRICITY
H01L2224/94
ELECTRICITY
H01L25/0652
ELECTRICITY
H01L2224/80
ELECTRICITY
H01L2224/08225
ELECTRICITY
H01L25/50
ELECTRICITY
H01L2224/94
ELECTRICITY
H01L2225/06513
ELECTRICITY
H01L2224/16227
ELECTRICITY
H01L2224/80001
ELECTRICITY
H01L21/4889
ELECTRICITY
International classification
H01L21/48
ELECTRICITY
Abstract
Existing methods of cooling computer chips can be inefficient, when applied to high density computing systems, such as wafer-scale-integrated (WSI) systems and other high-density computing systems. In particular, current methods of cooling integrated circuits can be inefficient when applied to high-density computing systems, as the cooling medium can lose its ability to absorb heat due to heat absorption and aggregation when the cooling medium travels through multiple surfaces and regions of a high-density computing system. In some embodiments, systems and methods of achieving high-density computing, by using bridge dies and standard and/or WSI lithography techniques are disclosed. In other embodiments, systems and methods of cooling high-density computing systems are disclosed. Two-phase immersion cooling that avoids heat aggregation is used.
Claims
1. A system comprising: a dense computing system, comprising a substrate and a plurality of dies arranged on the substrate; a tank of dielectric coolant comprising a container of the substrate, wherein the container comprises a vertical direction in which evaporated dielectric coolant travels upward to reach a top surface of the dielectric coolant, and wherein the substrate is immersed in the dielectric coolant, and wherein the face surface of the substrate and the vertical direction of the container form an angle, and wherein the angle deviates from zero degrees in an amount such that the dielectric coolant evaporated from absorbing heat generated from a region of the plurality of the dies travels toward the top surface in the vertical direction avoiding contact with other dies; and a condenser surface disposed above the top surface of the dielectric coolant.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the dense computing system comprises a wafer-scale-integrated computing system or a partially wafer-scale-integrated computing system.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the angle comprises an angle between approximately 10 to approximately 90 degrees.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the dielectric coolant comprises a refringent.
5. The system of claim 4, wherein the refrigerant comprises material from hydrofluorocarbon families.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the face surface comprises functional circuits implementing logic or memory functionality.
7. The system of claim 1, further comprising, one or more bridge dies, electrically coupling two or more dies on the substrate; wherein the bridge die is connected to the two or more plurality of dies via one or more of: through-silicon-vias (TSV), micro-bumps, solder-bumps, C4 bumps, inductive coupling, capacitive coupling, optical coupling, face to face bonding, bonded metal links, and face-to-face vias.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the dense computing system is unpackaged or partially packaged.
9. The system of claim 7, wherein the bridge die is mechanically connected to the two or more plurality of dies via one or more of direct bonding, anodic bonding, hybrid bonding, glues, epoxies, resins, benzocyclobutene (DVS-BCB) polymers, and thermocompression bonding.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein the dies comprise approximately identical copies of the dies produced from a lithographic technique that prints copies of identical dies on the substrate.
11. The system of claim 1 further comprising a refrigeration unit coupled with the condenser and configured to cool a temperature of a refrigerant inside the condenser to a temperature below a saturation temperature of the dielectric coolant.
12. A method comprising: forming a dense computing system on a substrate by forming a plurality of dies on a face surface of the substrate; electrically coupling two or more dies or die regions with one another; providing a tank of dielectric coolant comprising a container of the substrate, wherein the container comprises a vertical direction in which evaporated dielectric coolant travels upward to reach a top surface of the dielectric coolant; immersing the substrate in the dielectric coolant, wherein the face surface of the substrate and the vertical direction of the container form an angle, and wherein the angle deviates from zero degrees in an amount such that the dielectric coolant evaporated from absorbing heat generated from a region of the plurality of the dies travels toward the top surface in the vertical direction avoiding contact with other dies; and providing a condenser surface disposed above the top surface of the dielectric coolant.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the dense computing system comprises a wafer-scale-integrated computing system or a partially wafer-scale-integrated computing system.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the angle comprises an angle between approximately 10 to approximately 90 degrees.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the dielectric coolant comprises a refringent.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the refrigerant comprises material from hydrofluorocarbon families.
17. The method of claim 12, wherein the face surface comprises implementing logic or memory functionality.
18. The method of claim 12, wherein electrically coupling comprises forming one or more bridge dies, electrically coupling two or more dies on the substrate, wherein the bridge die is connected to the two or more plurality of dies via one or more of: through-silicon-vias (TSV), micro-bumps, solder-bumps, C4 bumps, inductive coupling, capacitive coupling, optical coupling, face to face bonding, bonded metal links, and face-to-face vias.
19. The method of claim 12, wherein the dense computing system is unpackaged or partially packaged.
20. The method of claim 12 further comprising cooling a refrigerant in circulation in the condenser surface.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0066] These drawings and the associated description herein are provided to illustrate specific embodiments of the invention and are not intended to be limiting.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0076] The following detailed description of certain embodiments presents various descriptions of specific embodiments of the invention. However, the invention can be embodied in a multitude of different ways as defined and covered by the claims. In this description, reference is made to the drawings where like reference numerals may indicate identical or functionally similar elements.
[0077] Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein have the same meaning as are commonly understood by one of skill in the art to which this invention belongs. All patents, patent applications and publications referred to throughout the disclosure herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. In the event that there is a plurality of definitions for a term herein, those in this section prevail. When the terms one, a or an are used in the disclosure, they mean at least one or one or more, unless otherwise indicated.
Definitions
[0078] die is a small block of semiconductor material on which a given functional circuit is fabricated.
[0079] bridge die, according to the described embodiments is a chip, die, substrate or connection means fabricated between one or more die regions or one or more semiconductor wafers in order to provide connections between those die regions and/or the semiconductor wafers. Connections can be used for communication, power delivery or other functions to integrate the functionality of the die regions connected via bridge dies.
[0080] Scale out integration, according to the described embodiments, is a method of achieving wafer-scale integration by using one or more bridge dies (e.g., chips, dies, substrates) fabricated to overlap with one or more die areas within a semiconductor wafer to create connections between those die areas.
[0081] Most challenges of wafer-scale integration are due to inherent limitations in lithographic techniques and the inability of fabrication techniques to create reliable connections (at wafer-scale dimensions) between dies printed on a semiconductor wafer. Additionally, current and standard lithographic technology are mostly geared for printing multiple copies of a chip on a semiconductor wafer and not for printing wafer-scale chips.
[0082] For example, in one respect, fabricating a monolithic computing system on a semiconductor wafer area greater than approximately 858 millimeter-squares (mm2) can be considered fabricating a WSI system. This has been an aspirational goal in the context of WSI systems for decades, especially in the context of computing systems, designed to handle highly parallel computing workloads, such as high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence. However, lithographic systems, even more modern lithographic systems such as 193 nanometer (nm) immersion lithography, can achieve a somewhat limited exposure area, due to optical challenges present even in modern lithographic equipment. Limited exposure area and other optical challenges of available lithographic and fabrication techniques, can make fabricating large-scale, or wafer-scale single circuits difficult to achieve.
[0083] In one embodiment, a scale out integration is proposed where one or more bridge dies can be used to create connections between dies on a semiconductor wafer, thereby achieving wafer-scale integration. The dies can contain identical, similar or different circuits manufactured and patterned using standard fabrication equipment or specialized WSI fabrication equipment.
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[0085] While
[0086] Some prior efforts to achieve wafer-scale integration have failed due to unavailability or impracticality of fabrication and lithography equipment capable of printing single-design, large circuit areas on a semiconductor wafer. Although, the described embodiments can be effectively used in a single or large-scale chip design, they allow a standard printed semiconductor wafer to achieve wafer-scale integration by externally connecting the multiple dies of the semiconductor wafer and the circuits embedded in them. Therefore, the described embodiments do not require prohibitively expensive or impractical fabrication equipment and high performance, resource-efficient computing systems can be built with the semiconductor wafers retrofitted with the described embodiments using standard lithography techniques.
[0087] Additionally, a variety of semiconductor wafers and substrates can be used to implement the semiconductor wafer 10. Examples include a 100 mm circular wafer, 300 mm circular wafer, square wafers, clover-shaped semiconductor wafers and semiconductor wafers of regular or irregular shapes.
[0088] A number of communication and power delivery techniques may be used between the bridge dies 14 and die areas within the die grid 12. Examples include, one or some combination of: through-silicon-vias (TSV), micro-bumps, solder-bumps, C4 bumps, inductive coupling, capacitive coupling, optical coupling, face to face bonding, bonded metal links, and face-to-face vias. The communication and power delivery techniques may be the same or can vary between bridge dies 14 and the grid 12 in various wafer regions.
[0089] Depending on the embodiment, the bridge dies 14 may be passive (no power required), active, or some combination of the two. Both or only one of active and passive bridge dies may be used on the die grid 12 depending on the circuit implemented by the embodiment of
[0090] In other embodiments, more than one layer of bridge die and/or semiconductor wafers can be used to create a three-dimensional integrated circuit configuration.
[0091] Various alignment processes can be used to properly align bridge dies 14 with the dies in the die grid 12. Example alignment processes can include, one or more of moir fringe alignment processes, key alignment processes, mechanical groove-based alignment processes, pick and place, infrared (IR) alignment processes, and dual backside alignment processes.
[0092] In some embodiments, one or more mechanical connections between bridge dies 14 and wafer die areas on die grid 12 may be used to secure the bridge dies 14 to the die grid 12. Example mechanical connections include, direct bonding, anodic bonding, hybrid bonding, glues, epoxies, resins, benzocyclobutene (DVS-BCB) polymers, and thermocompression bonding. In other embodiments, mechanical connections between bridge dies and wafer die areas can be omitted.
[0093] Bridge dies 14 can be as large or as small as needed to implement the circuitry desired. For example, an entire semiconductor wafer can be used as bridge die.
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[0095] While only one bridge die 24 (as a whole wafer bridge die) and two semiconductor wafers 22 and 26 are shown in
[0096] While the bridge die 24 is shown in a face-to-face orientation relative to the semiconductor wafers 22 and 26 (and relative to where the die grids 28, 30 and die grid of bridge die 24 are printed), other orientations are also possible. These can include for example, face-to-back, back-to-back and or a combination of them.
[0097] Applications
[0098] The proposed embodiments allow for the creation of large monolithic computing systems with large high interconnect and memory bandwidth. Such a system is particularly useful for highly parallel computing workloads, such as, but not limited to: machine learning, deep learning, supercomputing, high performance computing (HPC), weather simulations, nuclear simulations, parallel simulations, graph algorithms, and others.
[0099] Systems and Methods for Cooling Computer Hardware
[0100] In one respect, WSI systems, including the described embodiments and other WSI systems utilizing highly integrated systems, for example having multilayered ICs or other similar systems can be considered dense computing systems packing massive computing power per unit of area. During their operations, dense computing systems can generate more heat per unit of area/volume compared to less dense computing systems. Various methods and devices can be used to provide cooling and thermal management for dense computing systems. Existing methods include forced air or liquid cooling, where air or fluid is forced over an IC system area or volume, removing heat from the IC system. A heat exchange mechanism, such as a cooling compressor or chiller can remove the heat from the forced air or fluid. One challenge forced air or fluid cooling techniques in this manner faces is heat aggregation. By the time, the forced air or fluid travels from one end of an IC system (e.g., a silicon wafer) to another end, the forced air or fluid has absorb heat by a large amount and may be unable to remove heat from the nearby areas of the IC system, thereby making the application of forced air/liquid cooling technique to dense computing systems inefficient.
[0101] Two-phase immersion cooling techniques can be applied to dense computing systems to provide efficient thermal management.
[0102] Two-phase refers to the dielectric coolant 40 changing thermodynamic phase and removing heat from the dense computing systems 38 in the process. Two-phase cooling removes substantially more heat per unit of volume, compared to techniques using one-phase cooling or forced air/fluid cooling. The dielectric coolant 40 evaporates as the immersed, dense computing systems 38 generate heat as a by-product of their operations. The evaporated coolant bubbles up to the surface of the dielectric coolant 40 in gas form and reaches the condenser 36. The condenser 36 can be hollow and filled with a refrigerant. The condenser 36 can connect to a refrigeration system 44 to remove heat from the condenser 36 and keep its temperature lower than a saturation temperature (evaporation temperature) of the dielectric coolant 40. The refrigeration system 44 can cool a refrigerant inside the condenser 36 to a temperature below the saturation temperature of the dielectric coolant 40. In other embodiments, the condenser 36 maybe a passive condenser, which is cooled by transferring heat to its environment. The condenser 36 can be in any form or shape that can facilitate heat absorption from the evaporated coolant. In some embodiments, the condenser can be a lid enclosing the tank 34 or can be integrated in the lid enclosing the tank 34. The cooler temperature of the condenser condenses the evaporated coolant back to liquid form (causing the liquid to drip back into the dielectric coolant 40). Thus, by-product heat is removed from the dense computing systems 38.
[0103] One application of the disclosed two-phase cooling system 32 is that it can allow operation and thermal management of unpackaged or partially-packaged dense computing systems 38. Packaging in dense computing systems 38 can still be challenging, as existing industry tools and infrastructure can be unfit to accommodate packaging of such devices. As a result, the development of dense computing systems 38 has been hampered as they encounter a bottleneck of packaging and effective thermal management. Using the disclosed techniques of two-phase cooling, the dense computing systems 38 can be used unpackaged or partially packaged as the two-phase cooling system 32 offers encapsulation and protection from environmental factors. In other words, the cooling system 32 can function as both packaging and thermal management for the dense computing systems 38. Dense computing systems 38, for example WSI chips, can be made with some or all areas of the system exposed, or without packaging.
[0104] At the same time, dense computing systems 38, such as standard WSI systems or WSI systems built according to the embodiments described above, can be desirable computing systems as they promise high performance, high bandwidth computing power and low manufacturing cost per unit of volume of computing power. As described earlier, a technical challenge in their widespread adoption has been effective thermal management, as existing solutions can be inefficient when applied to the computation rate and chip density of dense computing systems 38. The disclosed two-phase thermal management systems (e.g., the two-phase cooling systems 32) can provide efficient cooling of dense computing systems (including WSI, stacked or other highly integrated systems), which has been previously a limiting factor in adoption and success of dense computing systems.
[0105] Furthermore, as described earlier, the dense computing systems 38 can be any dense computing systems, including a standard WSI chip, or a partially wafer-scale-integrated chip, or a WSI system built according to the described embodiments above. For example, a partial WSI chip can be manufactured on a silicon wafer, where the portion that is wafer-scale-integrated can be any portion larger than the reticle limit of 858 mm2 when 193 nm immersion steppers are used.
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[0109] In another embodiment, the dense computing systems 38 need not be arranged horizontally and can be placed in tank 34 with a slight slant, relative to the vertical direction, in order to reduce heat aggregation. The degree of slant can be determined to reduce the horizontal dimension of tank 34, so the two-phase cooling system 32 can occupy less area in the horizontal direction.
[0110] While the described embodiments of systems and methods of cooling computer hardware are illustrated with examples of dense computing systems based on the embodiments of WSI systems as described above, other dense computing systems such as standard WSI systems, three-dimensional (3D) ICs, multilayered ICs and any other computing system can be cooled using the described systems and techniques.
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[0112] The method 56 starts at step 58. At step 60, a tank of dielectric coolant is provided, wherein the tank can be a container of the substrate, and wherein the tank and/or the container includes a vertical direction, such as the vertical direction 50, shown in