Electro-thermal simulation and characterization of vertically aligned CNTs directly grown on a suspended microhoplate for thermal management applications

Abstract

Carbon related material, like carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or graphene have recently attracted significant attention for thermal management applications. The estimation of the thermal properties of nanomaterials, necessary to optimize their employment as heat exchanger material, is still a big challenge. In this paper we present a novel approach to evaluate the thermal performance of vertically aligned CNTs bundle, directly grown on top of a suspended microhotplate. The power consumption of the fabricated device has been recorded in air and in vacuum, so to determine the magnitude of each possible thermal loss path. Moreover, electro-thermal simulations (finite element modelling) have been carried out, to assess our experimental results and to generate a valuable instrument for the design of custom fit geometrical configurations for specific power dissipation constrains. Simulations are in good agreement with the experimental results over the entire temperature range. In particular, for the CNTs bundle sample, a mismatch of 14% and 7% between simulation and measurements is recorded in vacuum and air respectively.