Carbon-Nanotube-Enhanced Thermal Contactor in Low Contact Pressure Region

Abstract

We first demonstrated considerable reduction of thermal contact resistance (TCR) of a bending thermal contactor in microscale using carbon nanotubes (CNTs). TCR reduction using CNTs were previously reported with flat contact surface, but the thermal contact surfaces of actual microdevices often bend because of their residual and thermal stress. We evaluated both flat and bending contact surfaces to apply this method for a variety of applications. The TCR reduction is observed not only with a flat contact surface but also a bending surface. A bending micro thermal contactor with a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD)-grown 10 µm long “CNT carpet” shows a TCR of ca. 600 mm2 K/W at a contact pressure of 20 kPa, which is about 1/10 to the TCR of the reference contactor without “CNT carpet”. This technique is useful for micro thermal devices such as micro thermal switch.