Christian Tantolin

Recent progress of thermal interface material research - an overview

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the recent progress of research work performed to develop new thermal interface materials. The review starts by classifying existing thermal interface materials and analyzing their advantages and disadvantages. The state of the art research is then reviewed with an emphasis on those materials based on various carbon allotropes, such as graphite, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and fibers. Other kinds of fillers with high thermal conductivity, such as silicon carbide, boron nitride, aluminum nitride, aluminum oxide, silver and other metals, have also been extensively studied. These materials are also reviewed in this paper. Besides the achievements in materials development, other methods have also been developed to further reduce the overall interface resistance, such as modifying the surfaces of the integrated chips or heat sinks. This aspect is also discussed in this paper. The paper is summarized with a perspective on the future technical trends.

Integration, cooling and packaging issues for aerospace equipments

Packaging becomes an important issue in aerospace equipments because of high integration and severe environmental constraints. In order to develop products which respond to the specifications at a minimum cost, Thales performs both mechanical and thermal simulations. The simulation level depends on the phases of design (preliminary or detailed). The major challenges are encountered on thermal management problems with power higher than 100 W at the module level and with local hot spot greater to 100 W/cm2. Under these conditions, standard cooling approaches using forced air are no longer applicable. To challenge these points Thales has launched European collaboration research programs: “COSEE” for the development of two phases cooling systems and “NANOPACK” for the development of thermal interface materials.

Use of mini heat pipes for the thermal management of high dissipative electronic packages

An experimental study is realized in order to verify the mini heat pipe concept for cooling high power dissipation electronic cards. Two kinds of card substrate are considered: alumina and FR4 epoxy substrates, and the chip on board technology is used. Different prototypes of configurations on reporting the chip on the card are tested. The thermal measurements show that the use of heat pipes allows for significantly reduced temperature gradients and maximum chip temperature decrease.

Use of flat miniature heat pipes for the thermal management of electronic packages

An experimental study is realized in order to verify the mini heat pipe concept for cooling high power dissipation electronic cards. Two kinds of card substrates are considered: alumina and FR4 epoxy, and the chip on board technology is used. Different prototypes of configurations on reporting the chip on the card are tested. The thermal measurements show that the use of heat pipes allows for significantly reduced temperature gradients and maximum chip temperature decrease.