Bulk thermally conductive polyethylene as a thermal interface material†

Abstract

As the demand for high-power-density microelectronics rises, overheating becomes the bottleneck that limits device performance. In particular, the heterogeneous integration architecture can magnify the importance of heat dissipation and necessitate electrical insulation between critical junctions to prevent dielectric breakdown. Consequently, there is an urgent need for thermal interface materials (TIMs) with high thermal conductivity and electrical insulation to address this challenge. In this work, we synthesized thermally conductive polyethylene (PE) bars with vertically aligned polymer chains via a solid-state drawing technique to achieve a thermal conductivity of 13.5 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ with a coverage area of 2.16 mm². We utilized wide-angle X-ray scattering to elucidate the molecular structural changes that led to this thermal conductivity enhancement. Furthermore, we conducted a device-cooling experiment and showed a 39% hot spot temperature reduction compared to a commercial ceramic-filled silicone thermal pad under a heating power of 3.6 W. Thus, this bulk-scale thermally conductive PE bar with nanoscale structural refinement demonstrated superior cooling performance, offering potential as an advanced thermal interface material for thermal management in microelectronics.