Chip / Heat Source

The chip is where it all starts — the heat source in every thermal stack. Modern processors, GPUs, and AI accelerators push thermal design power (TDP) beyond 300–700 W, making thermal management more critical than ever.

Heat Generation in Chips

• Dynamic Power – From transistor switching. Scales with voltage², frequency, and capacitance.
• Leakage Power – Current leaking through transistors even when idle. Increases with temperature.
• Hot Spots – Localized regions with heat flux 2–10× the die average. Often in ALUs and cache.

Key Thermal Parameters

• Thermal Design Power (TDP) — the maximum sustained heat output
• Junction temperature (T_j,max) — typically 100–105 °C
• Die size and heat flux density (W/cm²)
• Θ_jc — junction-to-case thermal resistance

Trends

Chiplet architectures, 3D stacking, and advanced packaging (CoWoS, EMIB) are creating new thermal challenges — heat must be extracted from increasingly dense, multi-layer structures.