Advances in composite materials for thermal management in electronic packaging

Abstract

Author's Note: In this article, materials consisting of two distinct metals bonded together are referred to as metalmetal composites; the term metal-matrix composites is reserved for metals reinforced with carbon or ceramic fibers or particles.A variety of new advanced composite materials are now available that provide great advantages over conventional materials for electronic packaging thermal control, including extremely high thermal conductivities (more than twice that of copper); low tailorable coefficients of thermal expansion; weight savings up to 80 percent; extremely high strength and stiffness; low-cost, net-shape fabrication processes; and cost reductions as high as 65 percent. In addition, composites are in a state of continual development that will provide even greater benefits. This article provides an overview of advanced composites used in thermal management, including properties, applications, and future trends. The focus is on materials having thermal conductivities at least as high as those of aluminum alloys. Future trends and the potential for composites in other aspects of the electronics industry, such as highspeed assembly machine materials of construction, are also examined.

Contact resonance atomic force microscopy for viscoelastic characterization of polymer-based nanocomposites at variable temperature

“…values of f 1 and Q 1 were recorded for each sample on an area of 5 × 1 μm 2 , by applying a normal load of about 20 nN at three different temperatures, as reported in Table 1. As expected, for both the sample f 1 and Q 1 decrease as temperature increases f 1 . The values of f 1 and Q 1 were used to calculate those of tan δ , which are shown in Fig.…”

“…Reinforcement of polymers using suitable nanomaterials is a smart procedure to obtain nanocomposite materials with enhanced physical properties, including electric and/or thermal conductivity, strength, elasticity, toughness and durability, also in thermal management applications [1][2][3]. To set up reproducible synthetic routes, the properties of the obtained materials must be characterized from the macroscopic to the microscopic and sub-microscopic scale in the range of temperature of interest.…”

Thin Films with Ultra‐low Thermal Expansion

“…In addition, these structured materials can be designed to deliver pseudoisotropic CTE properties, unlike existing fi ber-polymer composites with low/negative but anisotropic CTE properties. [ 5 ] Macroscale structures consisting of periodic unit cells composed of two materials have been shown to present tunable CTE that is stable over a wide temperature range. [ 10,11,18 ] However, integration of these macroscale low-CTE structures into systems, especially for the aforementioned applications, has been limited because of their inhomogeneity and rigidity.…”

Fabrication of Cu-Based SiC Composites by Spark Plasma Sintering of Cu-Nitrate Coated SiC Powders

“…However, the application field of this material is limited because of higher coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) than the Si substrate in electronic packaging [1]. Recently, Cubased composites with low CTE dispersoids have become focus for thermal management applications [2][3][4].…”