Liquid metal heat conducting member and integrated circuit package incorporating same

摘要

An integrated circuit package has an integrated circuit chip, a substrate which holds the chip, and a novel heat conduction mechanism which is coupled to the chip and which provides a path for conducting heat from the chip to a fluid medium. This heat conduction mechanism is characterized as including a) a compliant body, having microscopic voids throughout, which is disposed in and fills a gap in the heat conducting path, and b) a liquid metal alloy that is absorbed by and partially fills the microscopic voids of the compliant body. Due to the presence of the liquid metal alloy, the thermal conductivity through the body is high. Also, due to the voids in the body being only partially filled with the liquid metal alloy, the body can be compressed by dimensional variations within the integrated circuit package without squeezing out any of the liquid metal alloy that is held therein.