Theoretical models on interfacial thermal conductance of nanoscale solid interfaces in chips: a mini review

Abstract With the rapid increase in power density of electronic devices, thermal management has become urgent for the electronics industry. Controlling temperature in the backend-of-line is crucial for maintaining the reliability of integrated circuits, where having many atomic-scale interfaces. The theoretical models of interface thermal conductance not only accurately predict the values but also help analyze the underlying mechanism. This review picks up and introduces some representative theoretical models considering interfacial roughness, elastic and inelastic processes, and electron-phonon couplings, etc. Besides, the limitations and problems of these models are also discussed.