Category: Transient Plane Source
Author(s): Alexander A. Balandin, Vivek Goyal
Keywords: Advanced Electronics, Advanced Electronics and Optoelectronics, Density Gradient Ultra-Centrifugation, Density Gradient Ultra-Centrifugation (DGU), DGU, EDS, Electrical Resistivity, Electron Dispersive Spectroscopy, Electron Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), Epoxy, graphene, Optoelectronics, Patterns, SAED, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Selected-Area Electron-Diffraction, Selected-Area Electron-Diffraction (SAED) Patterns, SEM, TEM, Thermal Conductivity, thermal interface materials, TIMs, TPS, Transient Plane Source, Transient plane source (TPS) method, Transmission Electron Miscoscopy, Transmission Electron Miscoscopy (TEM), Ultrasonication
Abstract: As electronic devices become smaller, power densities increase and so do hotspot temperatures, leading to a need for materials that can exchange heat better. The materials that facilitate this heat exchange are called thermal interface materials (TIMs). Graphene has been shown to demonstrate superior thermal conductivity and a particular form called few-layer graphene (FLG) was used in this project. A novel TIM was created by the mixing of a silver epoxy along with a graphene solution to produce hybrid graphene-metal-epoxy composites which were then tested using the transient plane source method in order to determine thermal conductivity. The addition of FLG to the silver epoxy resulted in an increase of thermal conductivity by ~500%, while using a small amount of graphene.
Reference: Applied Physics Letters 100, 073113 (2012)
DOI: 10.1063/1.3687173