ABSTRACT
Almost from the instant that active electronic devices were invented, a drive to increase the operating speed of electronic systems containing them was initiated. At the same time, a parallel effort focused on packing more electronics into a smaller and smaller volume. These trends continue unabated today. However, it is becoming more and more difficult to make progress in these areas using conventional single-chip packaging and present-day thermal management technologies. Multichip module (MCM) packaging, in which integrated circuits (ICs) are mounted extremely close together on a single substrate in order to increase the operating speed of an electronic system, only contributes to the thermal management challenge. As a consequence of these continuing trends in electronic systems, there are three main difficulties that must be addressed: how to provide for (1) the required power at the proper locations in the system, (2) sufficient input/output (I/O) connections to and from the system, and (3) adequate heat removal from the system.
