Single-Phase Microchannel Cooling for Stacked Single Core Chip and DRAM

The stacking of processing and memory components in a three-dimensional (3D) configuration enables the implementation of processing systems with small form factors. Such stacking shortens the interconnection length between processing and memory components to dramatically lower the memory access latencies, and contributes to significant improvements in the memory access bandwidth. Both of these factors elevate overall system performance to levels that are not realizable with prevailing and other proposed solutions. The shorter interconnection lengths in stacked architectures also enable the use of smaller drivers for the interconnections, which in turn reduces interconnection-level energy dissipations. On the down side, stacking of processing and memory components introduces a significant thermal management challenge that is rooted in the high thermal resistance of stacked designs. This paper examines and evaluates three distinct solutions that address thermal management challenges in a system that stacks DRAM components onto a processing core. We primarily focus on three different configurations of a microchannel-based single-phase liquid cooling system with a traditional air-cooled heat sink. Our evaluations, which are intended to study the limits of each solution, assume a uniform power dissipation model for the processor and accounts for the thermal resistance offered by the thermal interface material (TIM), the interconnect layer, and through-silicon vias (TSVs). The liquid-cooled microchannel heat sink shows more promising results when integrated into the package than when added to the microprocessor package from outside.