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TG-NSP35 Slide 3

As electronic devices become smaller and operate at higher speeds, energy emitted in the form of heat increases dramatically with heat flux often exceeding 100 W/cm2. A popular practice in the industry is to use thermal grease, or grease-like materials, alone or on a carrier in such devices to transfer the excess heat dissipated across physical interfaces. Most common types of thermal interface materials are thermal greases, phase change materials, and elastomer tapes. Thermal greases or phase change materials have lower thermal resistance than elastomer tape because of the ability to be spread in very thin layers and provide intimate thermal contact between adjacent surfaces. Typical thermal impedance values range between 0.05 to 1.6°C-cm2/W. However, a serious drawback of thermal grease is that thermal performance deteriorates significantly after thermal cycling, such as from −65°C to 150°C, or after power cycling when used in VLSI chips. The most common thermal greases use silicone oils as the carrier. It has also been found that the performance of these materials deteriorates when large deviations from surface planarity cause gaps to form between the mating surfaces in the electronic devices or when large gaps between mating surfaces are present for other reasons, such as manufacturing tolerances. When the heat transferability of these materials break down, the performance of the electronic device in which they are used is adversely affected.

PTM Published on: 2014-09-16