Cooling arrangement for semiconductor devices and method of making the

Abstract

A cooling device for cooling semiconductor elements by removing heat generated from the semiconductor elements such as, for example, semiconductor integrated chips in a large-sized electronic computer. The cooling device is fashioned of a composite AlN-BN sintered material having a Vickers hardness not higher than one-fifth of that of an AlN material, and an anisotropic property of thermal conductivity in a two dimensional direction is higher than that of AlN which is isotropic in thermal conductivity. The cooling device may be mass-produced while nevertheless having a high transfer performance matching the quantity of heat generated for each semiconductor element even if the composite sintered material is uniform in shape and size. The composite sintered material is formed by a mixture of a hexagonal BN powder having an average particle diameter of not less than 1 .mu.m and an AlN powder having an average particle diameter of about 2 .mu.m, with a sintering aid being added and the powdery mixture being subjected to a hot press sintering whereby the sintered material is low in thermal conductivity in a direction parallel to an axis of a shaft of the hot press.