Mean and Instantaneous Thermal Expansion of Uncoated and Ti Coated Diamond/Copper Composite Materials

Abstract

Heat sink materials not only should have higher thermal conductivity, but also have smaller difference of thermal expansion with cooled material. diamond/copper composites were made by the powder metallurgy method. Vacuum slowly vapor deposition technique was employed to deposit a titanium film on diamond particles before mixing with Cu powder in order to improve the bonding strength between Cu and diamond particles during sintering. The thermal expansion of diamond/Cu d composite was measured in the temperature range from 50 to 600 °C. The results show that the titanium film on diamond improves the interfacial bonding and reduces the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of Cu/diamond composites. The CTE of diamond/Cu composites decreases with increasing diamond volume fraction as the results of mixture rule and the intense restriction effect of diamond reinforcement on the copper matrix. The residual stresses and pores in the composites affect instantaneous thermal expansion of diamond/Cu composites.