Thermal conductivity of diamond/copper composites with a bimodal distribution of diamond particle sizes prepared by pressure infiltration method

Abstract

The thermal conductivity of diamond/copper composites with bimodal particle sizes was studied. The composites were prepared through pressure infiltration of liquid copper into diamond preforms with a mixture of 40 and 100 μm-size diamonds. The permeability of the preforms with different coarse-to-fine volume ratios of diamonds was investigated. The thermal conductivity of the diamond/copper composites with bimodal size distribution was compared to the theoretical value derived from an analytical model developed by Chu. It is predicted that the diamond/copper composites could reach a higher thermal conductivity and their surface roughness could be improved by applying bimodal diamond particle sizes.