Investigation on Carbon Nanotubes as Thermal Interface Material Bonded With Liquid Metal Alloy

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulong Ji ◽  
Gen Li ◽  
Chao Chang ◽  
Yuqing Sun ◽  
Hongbin Ma

Vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) films with high thermal conductance and mechanical compliance offer an attractive combination of properties for thermal interface applications. In current work, VACNT films synthesized by the chemical vapor deposition method were used as thermal interface material (TIM) and investigated experimentally. The liquid metal alloy (LMA) with melting point of 59 °C was used as bonding material to attach VACNT films onto copper plates. In order to enhance the contact area of LMA with the contact surface, the wettability of the contact surface was modified by plasma treatment. The thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, and thermal resistance of the synthesized samples were measured and calculated by the laser flash analysis (LFA) method. Results showed that: (1) VACNT films can be used as TIM to enhance the heat transfer performance of the contact surface; (2) the LMA can be used as bonding material, and its performance is dependent on the LMA wettability on the contact surface. (3) When applying VACNT film as the TIM, LMA is used as the bonding material. After plasma treatment, comparison of VACNT films with the dry contact between copper and silicon showed that thermal diffusivity can be increased by about 160%, the thermal conductivity can be increased by about 100%, and the thermal resistance can be decreased by about 31%. This study shows the advantages of using VACNT films as TIMs in microelectronic packaging.

Author(s):  
Amer M. Hamdan ◽  
Aric R. McLanahan ◽  
Robert F. Richards ◽  
Cecilia D. Richards

This work presents the characterization of a thermal interface material consisting of an array of mercury micro droplets deposited on a silicon die. Three arrays were tested, a 40 × 40 array (1600 grid) and two 20 × 20 arrays (400 grid). All arrays were assembled on a 4 × 4 mm2 silicon die. An experimental facility which measures the thermal resistance across the mercury array under steady state conditions is described. The thermal interface resistance of the arrays was characterized as a function of the applied load. A thermal interface resistance as low as 0.253 mm2 K W−1 was measured. A model to predict the thermal resistance of a liquid-metal micro droplet array was developed and compared to the experimental results. The model predicts the deformation of the droplet array under an applied load and then the geometry of the deformed droplets is used to predict the thermal resistance of the array. The contact resistance of the mercury arrays was estimated based on the experimental and model data. An average contact resistance was estimated to be 0.14 mm2 K W−1.


Author(s):  
David Shaddock ◽  
Stanton Weaver ◽  
Ioannis Chasiotis ◽  
Binoy Shah ◽  
Dalong Zhong

The power density requirements continue to increase and the ability of thermal interface materials has not kept pace. Increasing effective thermal conductivity and reducing bondline thickness reduce thermal resistance. High thermal conductivity materials, such as solders, have been used as thermal interface materials. However, there is a limit to minimum bondline thickness in reducing resistance due to increased fatigue stress. A compliant thermal interface material is proposed that allows for thin solder bondlines using a compliant structure within the bondline to achieve thermal resistance <0.01 cm2C/W. The structure uses an array of nanosprings sandwiched between two plates of materials to match thermal expansion of their respective interface materials (ex. silicon and copper). Thin solder bondlines between these mating surfaces and high thermal conductivity of the nanospring layer results in thermal resistance of 0.01 cm2C/W. The compliance of the nanospring layer is two orders of magnitude more compliant than the solder layers so thermal stresses are carried by the nanosprings rather than the solder layers. The fabrication process and performance testing performed on the material is presented.


Author(s):  
Xianfeng Ma ◽  
Gen Li ◽  
Xuelin Zheng ◽  
Xiaozhong Wang ◽  
Zhongcheng Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract The usage of low melting temperature alloys (LMAs) as thermal interface materials (TIMs) has attracted more and more attention for their high thermal conductivity. However, the wettability between liquid metal and ordinary metal surface was poor, which results in high thermal interface resistance. The thermal and physical properties of LMAs can be modified by adding nano or micro particles. In this study, the room temperature liquid metal (gallium, indium and tin eutectic) was used as TIM and its properties were modified by mixing magnetic nickel particles. Further, the effects of magnetic field application on the thermal performance of modified LMAs were evaluated by steady state method with specially designed sample holder. Results showed that the thermal conductivity of liquid metal mixed with nickel particle increased from 27.33 W/(m · K) to 33.33 W/(m · K) with the application of magnetic field.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (39) ◽  
pp. 10611-10617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liuying Zhao ◽  
Huiqiang Liu ◽  
Xuechen Chen ◽  
Sheng Chu ◽  
Han Liu ◽  
...  

Thermal interface material (TIMs) pads/sheets with both high elasticity and low thermal resistance are indispensable components for thermal management.


2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gen Li ◽  
Yulong Ji ◽  
Qingzhen Zhang ◽  
Bohan Tian ◽  
Hongbin Ma

A high thermal conductivity thermal paste can be developed by mixing the oxidized liquid metal alloy (OLMA) with graphene. Four kinds of graphene-OLMA pastes were synthesized at graphene concentrations of 0.25 wt%, 0.75 wt%, 1.5 wt%, and 2.0 wt%, respectively. The paste structures were characterized by MicroXCT-400, which can be used to readily measure the air pocket size, and their thermal conductivities measured by a laser flash analysis method. It is found that the OLMA structure is very different from the liquid metal alloy (LMA), and a small amount of air pockets were formed in the OLMA. The air pocket size significantly affected the thermal conductivity of the graphene-OLMA paste. When the graphene concentration increased, as shown in Fig. 1(c)-(e), the paste's thermal conductivity increased. However, more air pockets were formed around the graphene. In particular, when the graphene concentration increased to 2.0 wt%, clusters of graphene, as shown in Fig. 1(f), were formed resulting in the formation of big air pockets in the thermal paste, which directly affected the thermal conductivity as shown in Fig. 1(g). We thought that when the graphene concentration increases, the thermal conductivity should increases. But the results show that it was not and then we used MicroCT to see the internal structure of the thermal paste and found that the air pockets were formed and significantly affects the thermal performance.


Author(s):  
Yang Zhao ◽  
Rong-Shiuan Chu ◽  
Arun Majumdar

Vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays have been explored as advanced thermal interface materials because of their compliance and high cross-plane thermal conductivity. Our previous work showed that a CNT array directly bridging two surfaces by dry contact had a surface-surface interface resistance of order of 10 m2-K/MW. With an indium bonding layer, the interface thermal resistance was reduced by a factor of ten. Therefore, a more sensitive measuring system is needed to accurately determine the thermal resistance. In this paper, we achieved a higher sensitivity measurement by applying the phase sensitive transient thermo-reflectance technique to a front side heating and detecting system. A detailed analysis is presented. We used this technique to characterize a 71-μm long CNT array with packing density of 9.4 ± 1.4%. The CNT array was sequentially wetted with chromium/gold films and was bonded to a glass surface with an indium bonding layer. We found that the CNT array-surface interface resistance is 0.35 ± 0.11 m2-K/MW and the cross-plane thermal conductivity of CNT array is 94 ± 40 W/m-K.


2016 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 18-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Jiménez-Suárez ◽  
R. Moriche ◽  
S.G. Prolongo ◽  
M. Sánchez ◽  
A. Ureña

The current tendency in electronics is the reduction of size while continuously increasing the power consumption due to new functionalities and applications. Both aspects generate a heat increment. Consequently, dissipating the heat to the environment is necessary in order to avoid component overheating. [1,2]. The most efficient way to achieve it is to allow the heat to flow from the hot component to a heat sink. In order to improve the efficiency of this process, thermal resistance between both components must be reduced which is usually done by using a thermal interface material (TIM) between both surfaces [3-5]. This material should fill the gaps created due to the microscopic roughness of both surfaces and it must have good thermal conductivity [6]. These air filled gaps result in a very high contact resistance between joined parts, as the air thermal conductivity is very low [7].


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