Issues to address in use of composite materials for electronic packaging

There is an ever growing trend towards greatly reducing the size and mass associated with aerospace avionics and electronics, especially the structural components (i.e. heatsinks, thermal cores, enclosures, racks or decks). For several years effort have centered on substituting lesser density materials for, the most often used, aluminum alloy materials. Materials like graphite/cynnate, Carbon-Carbon and Albermet(TM) have been considered viable alternatives to aluminum for these structures. But with the higher packing density of the electronic and with increase in power requirements there becomes even greater need to dissipate heat more efficiently. Together these trends necessitate a better understanding of the issues to address when proposing new material candidate to satisfy future electronic packaging requirements. The understanding of these issues is more crucial when the trend is to integrate the electronics into the structures; as currently identified by the term "multi-functional structures" (MFS). Several spacecraft components will be space tested using this concept, MFS, before the turn of the century. Composite Optics, incorporated (COI) has provided several state-of-the-art lightweight, high-performance electronic enclosure (and heatsinks) to aerospace customers using graphite fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites (GFR/PMC) materials. Examples of flight qualified electronic enclosures which demonstrate the capabilities of advanced composite technology to reduce mass for satellite and aircraft applications are discussed. For the most part these applications represent a "substitution" of a lower density material (i.e. GRF/PMC) for aluminum in an existing enclosure design. A discussion of the issues (i.e. EMI, grounding, radiation, cost, etc.) associated with the usage of GFR/PMC for these enclosures is presented, along with the methods employed by COI to satisfy their current and future customers requirements.