Trumpf's Ultra-Short-Pulse Lasers for Fine Structures in Chip Stacks Integrated Chip Cooling for the Next Generation of AI Chips

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Trumpf has unveiled, for the first time, an ultrashort-pulse laser application for the industrial production of integrated cooling systems in chip stacks. The result is precise microstructures in silicon carbide, and the processing speed is at least five times faster than that of etching.

The next generation of high-performance AI chips requires new cooling solutions. At Semicon Taiwan, Trumpf is unveiling for the first time a new ultrashort-pulse laser application that enables the industrial production of cooling systems integrated into AI chips. “Heat dissipation will become the bottleneck for future AI processors. Without new cooling concepts, the high requirements cannot be met. Our ultrashort-pulse lasers enable the cost-effective production of the microstructures required for this on an industrial scale,” says Cathrin Conrad, Business Development Manager at Trumpf and responsible for chip cooling. With the new laser application, chip manufacturers can flexibly integrate cooling structures into the chip stack. The process is suitable for various materials, such as silicon carbide and diamond.

AI Boom Drives Demand for New Cooling Solutions

Manufacturers are increasingly turning to advanced packaging, a cutting-edge semiconductor technology in which chips are stacked or closely interconnected to enable greater computing power in a small space. As a result, heat is increasingly generated inside the chip stack and can only be dissipated to a limited extent using conventional cooling methods, such as cooling server racks or entire data centers. Leading semiconductor manufacturers have therefore included innovative cooling solutions for chips in their development roadmaps, such as microfluidic cooling or heat spreaders. These involve incorporating extremely fine structures into the chip package that dissipate heat right where it is generated.

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Semiconductor manufacturers must incorporate cooling structures into materials such as silicon carbide. This material is suitable for demanding applications in the semiconductor industry and efficiently dissipates heat. However, fabricating the required microstructures poses major challenges for the semiconductor industry, as silicon carbide is extremely hard, the required structures are extremely small, and they are difficult to produce using established etching processes.

Trumpf Lasers Enable the Industrial Production of Cooling Structures

This is where Trumpf’s ultrashort-pulse lasers (UKP) come into play. “The key advantage of our technology is that it is the combination of high laser power, beam shaping technology, and our many years of application expertise that makes the industrial production of integrated cooling systems in chip stacks possible,” says Conrad.

The ultrashort-pulse lasers ablate the silicon carbide with micrometer precision to create the fine structures. High precision is crucial for reliable cooling. Compared to etching, ultrashort-pulse lasers enable at least five times faster processing speeds while delivering excellent surface quality and precise geometry of the cooling structures. This allows the semiconductor industry’s requirements for quality and cost-effectiveness to be met simultaneously. After all, in addition to quality, productivity plays a central role for chip manufacturers.