As chip features shrink, transistor density increases, on-chip frequencies rise, and so also do the thermal energy densities on the IC. High on-chip temperatures are an increasingly important issue for chip, package and system designers because there is an inverse relationship between long term reliability and higher temperatures. That is, as the chip gets hotter and/or spends more time at elevated temperature, the reliability of the die, and thus the product in which it is used, tend to get worse. As a result, there has been, over the last few years, increased attention on thermal management of the electronic systems, beginning with the IC. This is not the first time that this issue has arisen. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the industry was facing a similar problem when bipolar chip design and manufacturing technology dominated.
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