Experimental study of a hybrid CNT/PCM structure for the transient thermal management of electronics

Abstract

Papers presented to the 11th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 20-23 July 2015.

A Thermal Interface Material with Thermal Storage capacity (TIM-TS) consisting mainly of a carbon nanotubes (CNT) array filled with phase change material (PCM) and integrated between two silicon chips is experimentally studied by means of a heating laser and an infrared camera in order to characterize its thermal behavior. The TIM-TS is intended to smooth temperature peaks of transient electronic components as a result of the high latent heat of the embedded PCM while keeping a high global thermal conductance thanks to the CNT array linking its two silicon chips. These two thermal properties are estimated thanks to the measured thermal response of different TIM-TS prototypes. A decrease of 5 K of the maximum TIM-TS temperature is measured with a mass fraction of PCM as low as 2.4%. The qualitative estimation of the thermal contact resistances at the CNT/silicon interfaces enables to identify the location of the major thermal resistance for the tested samples.