Fabrication and characterization of a metal matrix polymer fibre composite for thermal interface material applications

Abstract

Dealing with increasing power densities in high performance micro- and power -electronics applications is continuously becoming more challenging. Many applications today need thermal interface materials (TIMs) that can offer significantly higher performance than what is currently available. One of the main challenges for TIMs is to combine material properties that result in the thermo-mechanical characteristics required. Solder TIMs can provide excellent thermal transport, but high stiffness, causing lack of sufficient thermal-mechanical decoupling, limits their applicability. To mitigate these issues we pursue the development of a composite metal matrix based TIM technology concept with potential to combine high thermal conductivity with low joint stiffness. In this work we optimize the fabrication of an indium matrix polyimide fibre composite and investigate its thermal performance as an interface material. The fabricated composite is shown to have high effective thermal conductivity (up to 22 W/mK) and result in low contact resistance (<;1 Kmm<;sup>2<;/sup>/W).