A review of thermal interface material fabrication method toward enhancing heat dissipation

Author(s):  
Raihana Bahru ◽  
Mohd Faiz Muaz Ahmad Zamri ◽  
Abd Halim Shamsuddin ◽  
Norazuwana Shaari ◽  
Mohd Ambri Mohamed
2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Jian Cai ◽  
Qian Wang ◽  
Jingwei Li ◽  
Yang Hu ◽  
...  

To promote heat dissipation in power electronics, we investigated the thermal conduction performance of Sn-Bi solder paste between two Cu plates. We measured the thermal resistance of Sn-Bi solder paste used as thermal interface material (TIM) by laser flash technique, and a thermal resistance less than 5 mm2 K/W was achieved for the Sn-Bi TIM. The Sn-Bi solder also showed a good reliability in terms of thermal resistance after thermal cycling, indicating that it can be a promising candidate for the TIM used for power electronics applications. In addition, we estimated the contact thermal resistance at the interface between the Sn-Bi solder and the Cu plate with the assistance of scanning acoustic microscopy. The experimental data showed that Sn-Bi solder paste could be a promising adhesive material used to attach power modules especially with a large size on the heat sink.


Author(s):  
J. C. Matayabas ◽  
Vassou LeBonheur

The recent trend in microprocessor architecture has been to increase the number of transistors (higher power), shrink processor size (smaller die), and increase clock speeds (higher frequency) in order to meet the market demand for high performance microprocessors. These have resulted in the escalation of power dissipation as well as the heat flux at the silicon die level. The Intel packaging technology development group has been challenged to develop packaging solutions that not only meet the package thermal targets but also the reliability requirements. As a result, an integrated heat spreading (IHS) package was developed, comprising a Cu based heat spreader and a first level thermal interface material (TIM) between the die and the heat spreader. Due to CTE mismatches between its different elements, the IHS package is subjected to high level of thermo-mechanical stresses which lead to severe failures post reliability testing. A significant amount of theoretical understanding of thermal resistance has been developed and applied to the development of TIM formulations, and it was found that the thermo-mechanical properties of the TIM material need to be optimized to mitigate the package reliability stresses. Several material and process solutions have been investigated using fundamental approaches, and, as a result of these efforts, low stress silicone gel TIM’s were developed. This paper provides an overview of the silicone gel TIM technologies investigated at Intel, and the key learnings from the fundamental material and package integration studies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 995 ◽  
pp. 15-20
Author(s):  
Ivy Ann C. Razonado ◽  
Emee Grace T. Suarnaba ◽  
Lawrence V. Madriaga ◽  
Leslie Joy L. Diaz

Nowadays, there is a need for efficiency and miniaturization in electronic products. However, in the chip level, heat dissipation can limit the performance of these gadgets. Semiconductor industries addressed this thermal management challenge by using thermal interface material. Previous studies have shown that polymer-clay nanocomposite has an enhanced thermal conductivity which can be used as a thermal interface material. In this study, the aim was to determine the effect of casting techniques on the microstructure and thermal conductivity of the polymer-clay nanocomposites. Solution intercalation method was used in fabricating the 5vol% polymer-clay nanocomposite. Organo-modified montmorillonite (MMT) was dispersed in unsaturated polyester (UP) matrix by means of high frequency ultrasonication and formed using two casting techniques; mold casting and tape casting. Results showed a slight increase in the thermal conductivity coefficient of the tape-casted samples at 2.99 W/m-K compared to the mold-casted samples at 2.87 W/m-K. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) results exhibited dispersed microstructure for both casting techniques. Polymer intercalation of ~16% increase in d-spacing of clay for mold-casted samples and with a ~20% increase in d-spacing of clay for tape-casted samples were observed. With these microstructure modifications, the increase in the thermal conductivity coefficient of the tape-casted samples can be attributed to the shear force employed by the tape casting technique.


2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Warzoha ◽  
Andrew N. Smith ◽  
Maurice Harris

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) constitute a critical component for heat dissipation in electronic packaging systems. However, the extent to which a conventional steady-state thermal characterization apparatus can resolve the interfacial thermal resistance across current high-performance interfaces (RT < 1 mm2⋅K/W) is not clear. In this work, we quantify the minimum value of RT that can be measured with this instrument. We find that in order to increase the resolution of the measurement, the thermal resistance through the instrument's reference bars must be minimized relative to RT. This is practically achieved by reducing reference bar length. However, we purport that the minimization of reference bar length is limited by the effects of thermal probe intrusion along the primary measurement pathway. Using numerical simulations, we find that the characteristics of the probes and surrounding filler material can significantly impact the measurement of temperature along each reference bar. Moreover, we find that probes must be spaced 15 diameters apart to maintain a uniform heat flux at the interface, which limits the number of thermal probes that can be used for a given reference bar length. Within practical constraints, the minimum thermal resistance that can be measured with an ideal instrument is found to be 3 mm2⋅K/W. To verify these results, the thermal resistance across an indium heat spring material with an expected thermal contact resistance of ∼1 mm2⋅K/W is experimentally measured and found to differ by more than 100% when compared to manufacturer-reported values.


Author(s):  
Ashay Dani ◽  
James C. Matayabas ◽  
Paul Koning

With an increase in the number of transistors (higher power), shrinking processor size (smaller die), and increasing clock speeds (higher frequency) for next generation microprocessors, heat dissipation at the silicon die level has become a critical focus area for microprocessor architecture and design. In addition, power removal at low cost continues to remain the key challenge as we develop the next generation packaging technologies. Novel Thermal Interface Materials (TIM) are required to be designed and developed to meet these new package thermal targets. This paper presents an overview of the novel TIM technologies developed at Intel including greases, phase change materials (PCM), gels, polymer solder hybrids, and solder TIM for multiple generations of desktop, server and mobile microprocessors. The advantages and limitations of these TIM technologies in the thermal management of flip chip packaging are reviewed for Intel’s microprocessors.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (26) ◽  
pp. 7085-7091 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Song ◽  
Haidong Pan ◽  
Xiaofei Liang ◽  
Donglei Cao ◽  
Liyi Shi ◽  
...  

We fabricate a thermally conductive, electrically insulating and environment-friendly composite as a thermal interface material (TIM) with excellent tensile strength for heat dissipation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 734-752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rushabh Kothari ◽  
CT Sun

Multifunctional structures, of various forms, are being used in aerospace industry and there have been increasing efforts to enhance their performance. The design and analysis of a composite sandwich beam embedded avionics and integrated cooling systems is presented in this article. The integrated electronics inside a sandwich beam reduces the overall weight of a vehicle by eliminating most of the avionics housing, cables, interconnects, etc. The foam core of a sandwich beam is modified with a cavity to embed avionics. Since the presence of a cavity degrades the strength of the structure, various methods of reinforcement have been presented. The heat dissipation system has been designed to protect the structure from excessive thermal loads. The design of heat dissipating system consists of two parts, thermal interface materials and a highly efficient heat transfer device. Design guidelines for a thermal interface material consisting of particulate composites are presented here. Among various choices, heat pipes have been chosen as the preferred heat transfer device. An example is given for an unmanned aerial vehicle skin acting as the heat sink to maintain embedded electronics within their operational limit at subsonic air speeds.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hung-En Chou ◽  
Shang-Ray Yang ◽  
Sea-Fue Wang ◽  
James C. Sung

As a thermal interface material, thermal grease (TG) has been extensively applied to facilitate heat dissipation in electronic devices. Despite the superior thermal conductivity of diamond, researches on diamond-containing TGs remain rare. In this study, four kinds of TGs in which diamond served as essential filler were prepared and hot disk technique was applied to measure their thermal conductivity k(TG). After two unoverlapped particle sizes were selected, the volumetric filler content, terminal group, and viscosity of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix were modified in sequence. Based on the preferred recipe of a single-filler TG, two double-filler TG series were prepared by retaining the large diamonds and replacing the small ones by Al2O3 or ZnO, respectively. Depending on the content, it was found that diamond was not always the best choice for small filler. The highest k(TG), which was 23 times greater than the original k(PDMS), appeared in a ZnO-containing double-filler grease (=3.52 W/mK). The prediction for the maximum attainable thermal conductivity was preliminarily supported.


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