High Thermal Conductivity Materials

Thedemandfore?cientthermalmanagementhasincreasedsubstantiallyover the last decade in every imaginable area, be it a formula 1 racing car suddenly braking to decelerate from 200 to 50 mph going around a sharp corner, a space shuttle entering the earth's atmosphere, or an advanced microproc- sor operating at a very high speed. The temperatures at the hot junctions are extremely high and the thermal ?ux can reach values higher than a few 2 hundred to a thousand watts/cm in these applications. To take a speci?c example of the microelectronics area, the chip heat ?ux for CMOS microp- cessors, though moderate compared to the numbers mentioned above have 2 already reached values close to 100 W/cm , and are projected to increase 2 above 200 W/cm over the next few years. Although the thermal mana- ment strategies for microprocessors do involve power optimization through improved design, it is extremely di?cult to eliminate "e;hot spots"e; completely. This is where high thermal conductivity materials ?nd most of their appli- tions, as "e;heat spreaders"e;. The high thermal conductivity of these materials allows the heat to be carried away from the "e;hot spots"e; very quickly in all directions thereby "e;spreading"e; the heat. Heat spreading reduces the heat ?ux density, and thus makes it possible to cool systems using standard cooling solutions like ?nned heat sinks with forced air cooling.