The past few decades have seen an escalation of power densities in electronic devices, power electronics and next generation vehicle electronics. Together with the continuing trend of reduction in device dimensions (miniaturisation) this has led to a dramatic increase in thermal issues within electronic circuits. Thermal management is therefore becoming increasingly more critical and fundamental to ensuring that electronic devices operate within their specification.
Techsil and Momentive are driven by solving thermal management problems with high performance silicone technology and have been partners for over 30 years. With expertise in thermal adhesives, thermal potting, thermal greases and thermal gap fillers the questions being asked from consumer and automotive electronics producers was, can we go higher and get a more efficient thermal transfer?
We all know choosing the right Thermal Interface Materials is crucial for the device efficiency, performance and reliability. Instead of costly sophisticated cooling techniques, it is often better to invest in silicone interface materials which work to displace air gaps to enhance the thermal contact between layers giving a more efficient heat transfer.
So what are the options?
Current adhesive materials hover between 0.7 W/mK and 3.5 W/mK; they combine adhesion and bond strength with excellent heat management whilst remaining flexible for vibration and stress absorption. Gap fillers typically hover between 2.5 W/mk – 4.1 W/mk and provide excellent stress relief and can conform to complex 3D designs, filling air gaps and voids. Thermal pastes can be screen printed to give excellent workability and hover from 2.1 W/mk -4 W/mk and achieve minimum bond line thicknesses of 50µ.
Bringing up the rear are the thermal potting grades hovering between 1.3 W/mK – 2.2 W/mK. These score highly with their convenient 1:1 mixes; low viscosities and good flowability. Very high thermal conductivity silicone gap fillers with 8.2 W/mK and 10.1 W/mK are now on offer from Techsil & Momentive. These gap fillers are heat cured and offer very durable gap filling for consumer and automotive electronics.
For more information, contact the experts at Techsil.
www.techsil.co.uk | 01789 773232 | technical@techsil.co.uk
