Development of a High Performance Thermal Interface Material With Vertically Aligned Graphite Platelets

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Zhao ◽  
D. Strauss ◽  
T. Liao ◽  
Y. C. Chen ◽  
C. L. Chen
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Surface Roughness ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Experimental Tests ◽  
Thermal Interface Material ◽  
Graphite Nanoplatelets ◽  
Compression Pressure ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Soldering Process ◽  
Vertically Aligned

This paper introduces a high performance thermal interface material (TIM) with vertically aligned graphite. The main structure of the TIM is a vertically laminated structure, in which thin solder layers are laminated with aligned graphite layers. Unlike traditional TIMs infiltrated with randomly oriented high conductive fillers, the laminated TIM with vertically aligned graphite provides extraordinarily high z-axis thermal conductivity and controllable stiffness by simply setting the thickness of each component layer to match different surfaces. Thus, this design greatly improves the overall heat transfer performance. In addition, using metallic-graphite composites greatly improves the bonding between the graphite and the metallic host compared to nonmetallic materials, and thus the thermal boundary resistance can be significantly reduced. Moreover, compared to organic hosts, solders have much smaller phonon spectra mismatch with graphite nanoplatelets (GNPs), and thus offer significantly higher interface conductance. Furthermore, vertically connected solder layers can also lock the graphite layers in place and reinforce the strength of the entire package. A series of experimental tests was conducted to evaluate the effects of processing pressure and surface roughness on the overall thermal performance of the graphite TIMs. The results indicated that the overall thermal resistance of two smooth surfaces soldered by a 200 μm-thick graphite TIM was reduced from 0.12 to 0.03 cm2•K/W when the compression pressure applied during the soldering process was increased from 7 to 68 psi. Increased surface roughness appeared to improve heat transfer across the interface by enlarging the contact areas between the surface and the graphite TIMs. A preliminary numerical simulation verified this trend.

scholarly journals RGO-Coated Polyurethane Foam/Segmented Polyurethane Composites as Solid–Solid Phase Change Thermal Interface Material

Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3004
Author(s):  
Cong Zhang ◽  
Zhe Shi ◽  
An Li ◽  
Yang-Fei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
High Performance ◽  
In Situ Polymerization ◽  
Solid Phase ◽  
Thermal Interface Material ◽  
Segmented Polyurethane ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Self Assembling

Thermal interface material (TIM) is crucial for heat transfer from a heat source to a heat sink. A high-performance thermal interface material with solid–solid phase change properties was prepared to improve both thermal conductivity and interfacial wettability by using reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-coated polyurethane (PU) foam as a filler, and segmented polyurethane (SPU) as a matrix. The rGO-coated foam (rGOF) was fabricated by a self-assembling method and the SPU was synthesized by an in situ polymerization method. The pure SPU and rGOF/SPU composite exhibited obvious solid–solid phase change properties with proper phase change temperature, high latent heat, good wettability, and no leakage. It was found that the SPU had better heat transfer performance than the PU without phase change properties in a practical application as a TIM, while the thermal conductivity of the rGOF/SPU composite was 63% higher than that of the pure SPU at an ultra-low rGO content of 0.8 wt.%, showing great potential for thermal management.

Heat Conduction Across Corrugated Thermal Interface

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bozhi Yang ◽  
Wenjun Liu
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Conduction ◽  
Analytical Solution ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Fem Simulation ◽  
Expansion Method ◽  
Thermal Interface Material ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Eigenfunction Expansion Method ◽  
First Time

This paper presents the analytical solution of the heat conduction across a corrugated thermal interface material with rectangular straight fin arrangement. Domain decomposition and eigenfunction expansion method were used to study the thermal diffusion in such geometry for the first time. The temperature field solved from the analytical method agrees well with FEM simulation. The total heat transfer rate across the corrugated interface and thermal boundary resistance were derived analytically also. Results have shown that the effective thermal resistance across the interface can be significantly reduced with the corrugated TIM geometry. The analytical solution in the paper can provide insight into geometry effect on the heat transfer enhancement, and is a very useful complement to experimental work and numerical simulation in designing high-performance corrugated thermal interface.

Characterization of Metallically Bonded Carbon Nanotube-Based Thermal Interface Materials Using a High Accuracy 1D Steady-State Technique

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph R. Wasniewski ◽  
David H. Altman ◽  
Stephen L. Hodson ◽  
Timothy S. Fisher ◽  
Anuradha Bulusu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Applied Pressure ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Thermal Interface Materials ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Thermal Interface Resistance ◽  
Vertically Aligned ◽  
Performance Results ◽  
Interface Materials

The next generation of thermal interface materials (TIMs) are currently being developed to meet the increasing demands of high-powered semiconductor devices. In particular, a variety of nanostructured materials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), are interesting due to their ability to provide low resistance heat transport from device-to-spreader and compliance between materials with dissimilar coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs), but few application-ready configurations have been produced and tested. Recently, we have undertaken major efforts to develop functional nanothermal interface materials (nTIMs) based on short, vertically aligned CNTs grown on both sides of a thin interposer foil and interfaced with substrate materials via metallic bonding. A high-precision 1D steady-state test facility has been utilized to measure the performance of nTIM samples, and more importantly, to correlate performance to the controllable parameters. In this paper, we describe our material structures and the myriad permutations of parameters that have been investigated in their design. We report these nTIM thermal performance results, which include a best to-date thermal interface resistance measurement of 3.5 mm2 K/W, independent of applied pressure. This value is significantly better than a variety of commercially available, high-performance thermal pads and greases we tested, and compares favorably with the best results reported for CNT-based materials in an application-representative setting.

scholarly journals Demonstration of a Compliant Micro-Spring Array As a Thermal Interface Material for Pluggable Optoelectronic Transceiver Modules

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Cui ◽  
Liang Pan ◽  
Justin A. Weibel
Keyword(s):  
Heat Sink ◽  
Thermal Contact ◽  
Thermal Conductance ◽  
Thermal Interface Material ◽  
Thermal Contact Conductance ◽  
Compression Pressure ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Operation Temperature ◽  
Optical Module ◽  
Dry Contact

Abstract Pluggable optoelectronic transceiver modules are widely used in the fiber-optic communication infrastructure. It is essential to mitigate thermal contact resistance between the high-power optical module and its riding heat sink in order to maintain the required operation temperature. The pluggable nature of the modules requires dry contact thermal interfaces that permit repeated insertion–disconnect cycles under low compression pressures (∼10–100 kPa). Conventional wet thermal interface materials (TIM), such as greases, or those that require high compression pressures, are not suitable for pluggable operation. Here we demonstrate the use of compliant micro-structured TIM to enhance the thermal contact conductance between an optical module and its riding heat sink under a low compression pressure (20 kPa). The metallized and polymer-coated structures are able to accommodate the surface nonflatness and microscale roughness of the mating surface while maintaining a high effective thermal conductance across the thickness. This dry contact TIM is demonstrated to maintain reliable thermal performance after 100 plug-in and plug-out cycles while under compression.

A HIGH THROUGHPUT, LOW COST ASSEMBLY APPROACH FOR LED IMS PACKAGES TO HEAT SINK USING ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIALS

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (1) ◽  
pp. 000627-000632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swapan K. Bhattacharya ◽  
Fei Xie ◽  
Han Wu ◽  
Kelley Hodge ◽  
Keck Pathammavong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Sink ◽  
High Performance ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Thermal Interface Material ◽  
Thermal Interface Materials ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Cycle Times ◽  
High Adhesion ◽  
Machine Cycle

The objective of this study is to design and fabricate a high reliability LED Insulated Metal Substrate (IMS) package to complex heat sink attachment using an advanced thermal interface material (TIM). The assembly consists of LED IMS parts bonded to a heat spreader/sink using an advanced TIM and a corner bond material to quickly and accurately secure the LEDs in position. The corner bond adhesive is snap cured for fast machine cycle times while the high performance, high adhesion TIM materials cure throughout the rest of the assembly operation. This approach allows high accuracy LED bonding without the need for alignment pins or fasteners to anchor to the IMS. The IMS attached to the heat sink is then electrically interconnected with a thin flex substrate on top of the IMS. This approach is expected to replace the current mechanical fastners and low strength silicone TIM materials and reduce the cycle time and overall placement cost which are key drivers especially for the automotive industry.

Thermal Interface Materials From Vertically Aligned Polymer Nanotube Arrays

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas L. Bougher ◽  
Virendra Singh ◽  
Baratunde A. Cola
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Amorphous Polymer ◽  
Quartz Substrate ◽  
Applied Pressure ◽  
Thermal Interface Material ◽  
Bonding Pressure ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Vertically Aligned ◽  
Conductive Fillers ◽  
Enhanced Thermal Conductivity

A number of studies have reported enhancing the thermal conductivity of semi-crystalline polymers through mechanical stretching, but practical application of this process has proven difficult. Here we demonstrate the application of enhanced thermal conductivity in a purely amorphous polymer for a thermal interface material (TIM) without conductive fillers. Many polymer-based TIMs contain carbon fillers to enhance the thermal conductivity, however the TIMs reported herein are comprised solely of polymer nanotubes. The conjugated polymer polythiophene (Pth) is electropolymerized in nanotemplates to produce arrays of vertically aligned nanotubes, which adhere well to opposing substrates through van der Waals forces. We find that the total thermal resistances of the Pth-TIMs are a strong function of height with some dependence on bonding pressure, yet independent of applied pressure after bonding. Photoacoustic measurements show that the total thermal resistance of the TIMs ranges from 9.8 ± 3.8 to 155 ± 32 mm2-K/W depending on the array height and bonding pressure. Estimates of the component resistances indicate that the majority of the resistance is in the contact between the nanotube free tips and the opposing quartz substrate. These Pth-TIMs demonstrate that enhanced thermal conductivity polymers can be suitable for heat transfer materials without thermally conductive fillers.

scholarly journals Use of 1D mechanical and thermal models to predetermine the heat transferable by a thermal interface material layer in space applications

2020 ◽  
Vol 234 (17) ◽  
pp. 3459-3473
Author(s):  
Simon Vandevelde ◽  
Alain Daidié ◽  
Marc Sartor
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Thermal Performance ◽  
Thermal Contact ◽  
Interface Layer ◽  
Thermal Interface Material ◽  
Space Applications ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Steady State Heat ◽  
Steady State Heat Transfer ◽  
Assistance Tool

This paper proposes the use of 1D basic models to build a design assistance tool capable of evaluating the heat transfer between a third-level electronic packaging and its support, considering a conventional configuration where a thermal interface material is placed between these two parts. Using this kind of tool early in the design process may facilitate choices concerning geometry and material. The packaging is modelled by a stepped beam (the equipment) and the interface layer by a nonlinear elastic foundation (the thermal interface material). Considering that the electronic equipment bends under the effect of the forces exerted by the fasteners, the tool makes it possible to determine the contact zone remaining operative after deformation, and the pressure distribution at the interface. Mechanical results are then used to calculate the steady-state heat transfer between the equipment and its support, taking into account the diffusion within the equipment and the thermal interface material, and also the thermal contact resistances, the latter being dependent on the contact pressure. A detailed case study is used to illustrate the utility of the approach. The 1D models are exploited to illustrate the interest of the design assistance tool. The influence of different parameters on the thermal performance is studied and a new innovative proposal is analyzed, which could lead to a significant increase in thermal performance.

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