Open Access
ARTICLE
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF COEFFICIENT OF THERMAL EXPANSION OF ALIGNED GRAPHITE THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIALS
Hsiu-Hung Chena
, Yuan Zhaob, Chung-Lung Chena,*
a Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211
b Teledyne Scientific, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
* Corresponding Author: Email:
Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2013, 4(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.5098/hmt.v4.1.3004
Abstract
Carbon-based materials draw more and more attention from both academia and industry: its allotropes, including graphene nanoplatlets, graphite
nanoplatlets and carbon nanotubes, can readily enhance thermal conductivity of thermal interface products when served as fillers. Structuraloptimization in micro/nano-scale has been investigated and expected to finely tune the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of thermal interface
materials (TIMs). The capability of adjusting CTE of materials greatly benefits the design of interface materials as CTE mismatch between materials
may result in serious fatigue at the interface region that goes through thermal cycles. Recently, a novel nano-thermal-interface material has been
developed, which is composed of tin (Sn) solder and graphite nanoplatlets. CTE of such sort of TIMs can be adjusted to match well with the substrate
materials. A customized, optical CTE measuring system was built to measure CTEs of these thin and flexible samples. The averaged CTEs of
samples made by this new approach range from -0.267×10
-6
/°C to 5×10
-6
/°C between 25°C and 137°C, which matches CTEs of typical
semiconductor materials (the CTE of silicon is ~3×10
-6
/°C in the same temperature range). This unique CTE-matching feature of a bonding material
will have great potential to impact future development of high power microelectronics devices.
Keywords
Cite This Article
Chen, H., Chen, C. (2013). EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF COEFFICIENT OF THERMAL EXPANSION OF ALIGNED GRAPHITE THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIALS.
Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer, 4(1), 1–7.