New Nano-Thermal Interface Material for Heat Removal in Electronics Packaging

The need for faster, smaller, and more reliable and efficient products has resulted in increase of heat generated in microelectronic components. The removal of the heat generated is an important issue in electronic packaging. The present research work aims at developing a new class of nano-thermal interface material (nanoTIM) that has low thermal resistance, high thermal conductivity and mechanical strength using the electrospinning process. With the electrospinning process, polymer nano-fibers with nano-scale diameter are formed. Nano-particles such as nano-silver particles, nano-carbon nanotubes (CNT) and nano-silicon carbide particles were embedded into the nano-fibers to enhance the thermal conductivity and to reduce the thermal resistivity. Optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis techniques were used to determine the morphology of the nano-composite fibers obtained. Thermal resistivity, conductivity and mechanical strength of the nano-composite materials formed were measured. In addition, the manufactured nano-materials were characterized using the thermo gravimetric analyzer (TGA) and the differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) analysis techniques to study the softening, melting as well as degradation behavior. The mechanical strength was also studied using a multi-functional mechanical tester. The results show that the nano-fiber based composite nano-TIMs have similar thermal conductivity, 3 to 9 times lower thermal resistivity, similar operation temperature range and degradation behavior, 2 to 5 times higher ultimate tensile strength, in comparison with commercially available TIMs. By adding adhesive functions into the process, a new class of nano-TIM tape has been produced