Comparison between the Theoretical, Experimental and Numerical Thermal Conductivity of Composite Thermal Interface Materials using Copper Metal Foam

Abstract

In recent years, the heat generation value inside ECU has been increasing. So, thermal management is important to maintain the normal ECU operation. One of the means to improve the heat dissipation of ECU is to increase the thermal conductivity of TIM, which is mounted between the heat-generating component and the ECU housing. Generally, TIM used in ECU is composed of silicone resin and ceramic filler. That is, the metal fillers are not commonly used because there is a possibility of short circuit failure when scattered inside ECU. Now, we focused on open-cell copper metal foam, which has higher thermal conductivity than that of ceramics filler and doesn’t scatter due to its networked structure. Furthermore, since the copper metal foam has low elasticity, it is expected that solder ball joint reliability will not be reduced even if it is mounted between the BGA component and the housing. In this paper, the thermal conductivity difference among the experimental, theoretical and numerical value was within ± 1.1 W/(m·K). From these results, it was inferred that the thermal conductivity of copper metal foam used in the modified theoretical model is due to the metal foam structure used in this study.