Investigation of Pressure Dependent Thermal Contact Resistance between Silver Metallized SiC Chip and DBC Substrate

Abstract

– Thermal contact resistances between a silver metallized SiC chip and a direct bonded copper (DBC) substrate have been measured in a heat transfer experiment. A novel experimental method to separate thermal contact resistances in multilayer heat transfer path has been demonstrated. The experimental results have been compared with analytical calculations and also with 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results. A simplified CFD model of the experimental setup has been validated. The results show significant pressure dependence of the thermal contact resistance but also a pressure independent part.