Note that the 2020 workshop will be a Virtual Event

November 10-13, 2020

Announcement and Call for Abstracts

Download the PDF(140KB)

Abstracts for presentations may be submitted to:

Dave Saums, DS&A LLC, General Chair
Vadim Gektin, NUVIA, Inc., Program Chair

ABSTRACT DEADLINE: October 9, 2020

• Advanced thermal interface materials developments, testing, and characterization
• Developments in CTE-matched thermal composites, graphite, and related heat spreader materials
• Applications for vapor chambers and heat pipe assemblies
• Single- and two-phase liquid cooling systems developments
• Commercial and military/aerospace thermal solutions
• Developments in power semiconductor thermal solutions
• Innovations in CFD thermal modeling and characterization tools

Keynote presentations (2)

This Workshop has been held for more than twenty-five years and has gained industry attention for the excellence of keynote presentations and first announcements of important technological developments. Keynote presentations in the last five years have been given by speakers from AMD, Collins Aerospace, Georgia Institute of Technology, HPE/Hewlett Packard Laboratories, HP Systems Research Labs, IBM Corporation, Intel Corporation, Microsoft, Qualcomm Technologies, Samsung (Korea), Santa Clara University, The Citadel, and the University of Colorado. In 2019, the Workshop moved to the Microsoft Corporation Conference Center on the Microsoft headquarters campus, near Seattle WA, allowing us to set a new attendance record and expand the number of technical exhibits, with an outstanding response from speakers and attendees.

Each year, authors and attendees find this workshop format to be a highly effective forum for the announcement of new developments and new challenges, as well as for excellent networking between all participants. While the virtual workshop format for 2020 will mean that we cannot achieve the traditional networking environment, that the strong technical content will continue to draw solid attendance.

As a virtual workshop, we are able to offer a significant reduction in registration fees for attendees compared to the traditional in-person fees.

Student Abstract Competition

We anticipate holding a student abstract competition again for 2020, as we have since 2004. This will include cash stipends for winning graduate and undergraduate science and engineering student presentations. Stipends are funded by sponsor companies, accompanied by a waiver of registration fees. New logo

ABSTRACTS ARE SOLICITED IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

• Market drivers: Understanding thermal challenges and business/economic drivers that influence change in electronic systems design and manufacturing –and how these impact thermal design requirements. Developing market trends, market segmentation, cost drivers, and reliability factors are examples of topics that set the framework for where and what types of new technical solutions are viable.
• Stacked-die packaging: Advanced packaging technologies, such as System-In-Package, Multi-chip modules, Multi-package modules, and stacked-die packaging provide significant opportunities for miniaturization and performance enhancements. These technologies introduce significant thermal and interconnect challenges that must be balanced against those benefits and require continuing new developments in materials and solutions.
• Mobile and handheld devices: Wearables, mobile, medical devices, small displays, tablets, notebooks, AR headsets, and other consumer and mobile devices introduce unique component- and system-level thermal challenges that require novel design approaches and materials.
• Wireless and telecom infrastructure: High-performance telecom hardware have challenging component and system-level requirements that require technical advances to meet the evolving needs for routers, networked systems, and base stations.
• Power semiconductor thermal components, systems, and solutions: Developments in IGBT thermal management and packaging strongly influence advances in electronic and electrical drive systems, especially important in the EV/HEV and renewable energy markets.
• Mil/Aerospace: Avionics, RF, energy, and microwave components and modules for phased array radar, countermeasures, communications, and other systems, requiring advanced thermal management as well as high-temperature materials and packaging.
• System-level cooling: The thermal design of complex systems, such as high-performance computing systems, relies on extensive component-and system-level thermal management analysis to address the broad spectrum of issues that entail a comprehensive system design.
• Data center cooling: Data center cooling includes a variety of design optimization activities including cooling provisioning, airflow control, temperature distribution, and migration paths that range from forced air convection to system liquid cooling.
• Liquid cooling, phase-change, and refrigeration: Advanced cooling methods that use liquid, latent heat, and/or active cooling provide opportunities for enhanced performance and design flexibility. Effective designs must balance these advantages against factors including life-cycle cost, reliability, and serviceability impact.
• Thermal interface materials (TIMs) and testing: Advanced thermal interface materials that may include organic, metallic, graphitic materials in bulk form, as well as nanoscale, are enabling significant advances in the thermal management of high-performance processors, memory, telecom, IGBT, RF, and microwave components and systems. Effective testing is critical in determining the suitability of a TIM for a given application.
• CTE-matching and high thermal conductivity materials: Metallic, ceramic, and composite materials have been engineered to exhibit excellent thermal conductivity with controlled coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) properties to allow for better matching with GaN, SiC, silicon, or ceramic materials to reduce thermal stresses in component packaging.

Preparation of Abstract

Speakers should submit one copy of a two-paragraph abstract that describes their proposed 25-minute presentation no later than October 9, 2020. NOTE: No formal technical manuscript is required. A post-conference download that includes presentation materials, as provided by the authors, will be sent to all attendees approximately two weeks after the event. Speakers will be asked to sign a permission to publish a statement.

Abstracts may be submitted to the general and program chairs. An abstract submittal page will also be available at a later date on the SEMI-THERM Educational Foundation website (www.semi-therm.org). Accepted presentations may be considered for subsequent publication with a full manuscript in the annual SEMI-THERM Symposium and on the SEMI-THERM Technical Library.

Organizing Committee

Vadim Gektin, Member Technical Staff, NUVIA, Inc.
Bill Maltz, President, Electronic Cooling Solutions, Inc.
Nader Nikfar, Principal Thermal Engineer, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Adriana Rangel, Mechanical Engineer, Cisco Systems Inc.
Dave Saums, Principal, DS&A LLC
Tejas Shah, Senior Thermal Architect, Intel Corporation
Guy Wagner, Director, Electronic Cooling Solutions, Inc.
Ross Wilcoxon, Associate Director, Mechanical Engineering, Mission Systems, Collins Aerosace, Inc.

Questions may be addressed to ttw2020@semi-therm.org

About SEMI-THERM

The Thermal Technologies Workshop is part of the SEMI-THERM Educational Foundation (STEF), which was established in 2013 as a Non-Profit Educational Foundation. STEF is dedicated to worldwide educational opportunities and resources within the electronics thermal engineering community. SEMI-THERM is a non-profit organization under IRS 501c3.