Investigation on Thermal Conductivity Silver-coated Copper/GaInSn Composite Thermal Interface Materials

Abstract

To enhance the heat transfer performance of GaInSn liquid metal, a new type of composite thermal interface material with GaInSn as thermal conductive matrix and silver-coated copper particles as thermal conductive fillers was prepared in this article. The morphology of the composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The thermal conductivity of silver-coated copper/GaInSn composites with different silver-coated copper particle contents were measured by laser flash method. The interfacial bonding of the composites were investigated by X-ray diffraction. The results show that when the volume ratio of silver-coated copper particles is 15%, thermal conductivity of the silver-coated copper/GaInSn composite reaches the largest value of 25.01 W·m−1·K−1. The silver-coated copper/GaInSn composite material and commercially available thermal grease were put into the chip and copper plate to simulate the actual application scenarios for comparison. The heat dissipation capacity of silver-coated copper/GaInSn composite material is obviously better than that of the two commercially available thermal grease, and the chip temperature can be reduced by about 5°C.