Machine-Learning Assisted Optimization Strategies for Phase Change Materials Embedded within Electronic Packages
This work addresses thermal management challenges in electronic devices for improved reliability and efficiency, but it is incremental as it builds on existing optimization methods with machine learning enhancements.
The paper tackled optimizing phase change materials (PCMs) embedded in electronic packages to reduce thermal resistance and improve thermal performance, resulting in a 19% reduction in maximum temperature rise and up to 88% reduction in fluctuations compared to devices without PCM.
Leveraging the latent heat of phase change materials (PCMs) can reduce the peak temperatures and transient variations in temperature in electronic devices. But as the power levels increase, the thermal conduction pathway from the heat source to the heat sink limits the effectiveness of these systems. In this work, we evaluate embedding the PCM within the silicon device layer of an electronic device to minimize the thermal resistance between the source and the PCM to minimize this thermal resistance and enhance the thermal performance of the device. The geometry and material properties of the embedded PCM regions are optimized using a combination of parametric and machine learning algorithms. For a fixed geometry, considering commercially available materials, Solder 174 significantly outperforms other organic and metallic PCMs. Also with a fixed geometry, the optimal melting points to minimize the peak temperature is higher than the optimal melting point to minimize the amplitude of the transient temperature oscillation, and both optima increase with increasing heater power. Extending beyond conventional optimization strategies, genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization with and without neural network surrogate models are used to enable optimization of many geometric and material properties. For the test case evaluated, the optimized geometries and properties are similar between all ML-assisted algorithms, but the computational time depends on the technique. Ultimately, the optimized design with embedded phase change materials reduces the maximum temperature rise by 19% and the fluctuations by up to 88% compared to devices without PCM.