Heat spreader flatness detection
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsArvind K. Sinha, Kory W. Weckman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A heat spreader includes a plurality of sensors that indicate that the heat spreader is flat against and in thermal contact with a plurality of chips when the heat spreader is loaded upon a chip stack. One or more nodes within the sensors are connected by electric conductors. The resistances of the conductors may be compared to determine if the nodes within the sensors are relatively flat. Sensor flatness may be indicated to a higher level electronic device such as a visual display. The display may ultimately be viewed by a user to determine whether the heat spreader is flat and in thermal contact with the plurality of chips when the heat spreader is loaded upon the chip stack.
Claims20
An electronic device comprising:
- a chip stack comprising a plurality of chips attached to a common substrate;
- and
- a heat spreader comprising a plurality of sensors that indicate whether the heat spreader is flat against and in thermal contact with the plurality of chips.
A method to determine heat spreader flatness comprising:
- measuring a first resistance of a first electric conductor connected to a first node and a second node, the first node and the second node being located within a sensor, the sensor being located within a heat spreader;
- comparing the first resistance with a second resistance;
- determining whether the sensor is flat based upon the comparison;
- and
- correlating the sensor flatness to heat spreader flatness.
A computer program product for determining heat spreader flatness, the computer program product comprising:
- a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code configured to:
- measure a first resistance of a first electric conductor connected to a first node and a second node, the first node and the second node being located within a sensor, the sensor being located within a heat spreader;
- compare the first resistance with a second resistance;
- determine whether the sensor is flat based upon the comparison;
- and
- correlate the sensor flatness to heat spreader flatness.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.