Thermal Impedance As a Function of Load and Materials Density, Thickness and Thermal Conductivity
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CARBON NANOSTRUCTURES AS THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIALS: PROCESSING AND PROPERTIES Thesis Submitted to The School of Engineering of the UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering By Muhammad Omar Memon Dayton, Ohio May, 2011 CARBON NANOSTRUCTURES AS THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIALS: PROCESSING AND PROPERTIES Name: Memon, Muhammad Omar APPROVED BY: ___________________________ ______________________________ Khalid Lafdi, Ph.D Kevin Hallinan, Ph.D Advisor Committee Chairman Committee Member Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering ___________________________ ______________________________ Lawrance Flach, Ph.D Don Klosterman, Ph.D Advisor Committee Chairman Committee Member Chemical and Materials Engineering Chemical and Materials Engineering _____________________________ ___________________________ John G. Weber, Ph.D Tony Saliba, Ph.D Associate Dean Dean School of Engineering School of Engineering ii ABSTRACT CARBON NANOSTRUCTURES AS THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIALS: PROCESSING AND PROPERTIES Name: Memon, Muhammad Omar University of Dayton Adviser: Dr. Khalid Lafdi The power density of electronic packages has substantially increased. The thermal interface resistance involves more than 50% of the total thermal resistance in current high-power packages. The portion of the thermal budget spent on interface resistance is growing because die-level power dissipation densities are projected to exceed 100 W/cm2 in near future. There is an urgent need for advanced thermal interface materials (TIMs) that would achieve order- of-magnitude improvement in performance. Carbon nanotubes and nanofibers have received significant attention in the past because of its small diameter and high thermal conductivity. The present study is intended to overcome the shortcomings of commercially used thermal interface materials by introducing a compliant material which would conform to the mating surfaces and operate at higher temperatures. iii Thin film ―labeled buckypaper‖ of CNF based Materials was processed and optimized. An experimental setup was designed to test processed materials in terms of thermal impedance as a function of load and materials density, thickness and thermal conductivity. Results show that the thermal impedance decreased in conjunction with the increasing heat-treatment temperature of CNFs. TIM using heat treated CNF showed a significant decrement of 54% in thermal impedance. Numerical simulations confirmed the validity of the experimental model. A parametric study was carried out which showed significant decrement in the thermal resistance with the decrease in TIM thickness. A transient spike power was carried out using two conditions; uniform heat pulse of 24 Watts, and power spikes of 24-96 Watts. The results show that heat treated CNF was 12% more temperature resistant than direct contact with more than 50% enhancement in heat transport across it. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am very grateful to Allah (God) for blessing me throughout this project and my entire life. This accomplishment would not have been possible without His help and desire. It is my pleasure to thank those who made this research possible. I am heartily thankful to my advisor, Khalid Lafdi, for his guidance, encouragement and support from the initial to the final level of this research. I am grateful to him for being so kind and patient throughout this project. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the committee members Dr. Kevin Hallinan, Dr. Lawrance Flach and Dr. Don Klosterman, for evaluating this research. I would like to thank my collaborators at the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI), Dr. Lee, Alex and Matt Boehle for their tremendous support and guidance at each step of this project. I owe my deepest gratitude to; my grandparents for their uncountable prayers for my health and success, my parents, for their incomparable love and support, my dear siblings Henna, Ali and Sana for being extremely patient and morally supportive, and last but not least, my immediate relatives for taking care of me at every single step throughout this endeavor. This work would not have been possible without the love and support of my entire family. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................ viii LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................... xii Chapter I – Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 Chapter II – Literature Review .............................................................................. 6 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 6 2.2 System Approach ........................................................................................... 7 2.3 Materials Approach ....................................................................................... 13 2.3.1 Thermal Interface Materials ............................................................ 14 2.4 Thermal Resistance Measurement ............................................................... 29 2.5 Proposed Methodology ................................................................................. 31 Chapter III –Material Fabrication and Characterization ...................................... 33 3.1 Materials Fabrication .................................................................................... 33 3.2 Validation of the Test Setup.......................................................................... 52 vi 3.3 Experimental Characterization ...................................................................... 55 3.3.1 Thermal Conductivity calculation .................................................... 55 3.3.2 Thermal Impedance comparison..................................................... 57 3.3.3 PVA/CNF Ratio ............................................................................... 60 3.3.3.1 PVA Effects ....................................................................... 66 3.3.3.2 CNF Effects ....................................................................... 68 3.4 Modeling ....................................................................................................... 70 3.5 Validation of the Model ................................................................................. 74 3.6 Numerical Simulation .................................................................................... 77 3.6.1 Parametric Study ............................................................................ 78 Chapter IV – Power Spike Analysis .................................................................... 81 4.1 Experimental Setup ...................................................................................... 86 4.2 Results.......................................................................................................... 93 4.2.1 Uniform Power Pulse ...................................................................... 93 4.2.2 High Power Spikes .......................................................................... 93 4.3 Summary .................................................................................................... 104 Chapter V – Conclusions .................................................................................. 106 Chapter VI – Recommendations ....................................................................... 111 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 113 APPENDIX ....................................................................................................... 130 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Interface with both contact points and air gaps ................................. 14 Figure 2.2 Nyquist plots of the thermal impedance of different interface materials [77] ..................................................................................................................... 23 Figure 2.3 Ratio of styrene to other hydrocarbon products as a function of time on stream [121] ................................................................................................... 29 Figure 3.1 Bright-field image of pristine PS carbon nanofibers ........................... 33 Figure 3.2 Models of various nanofiber configurations ....................................... 34 Figure 3.3 Carbon plane structure as a function of heat-treatment temperature [134] ................................................................................................................... 35 Figure 3.4 Bright field micrograph of Dixie Cup carbon nanofiber structure ....... 36 Figure 3.5 High-resolution imaging of localized area of Dixie Cups carbon nanofiber structure .............................................................................................. 37 Figure 3.6 Volume resistivity of as received carbon nanofibers at 108psi .......... 38 Figure 3.7 Fabrication process of buckypaper TIM ............................................. 39 Figure 3.8 a) Filtration process and b) Prepared sample .................................... 40 Figure 3.9 Compliance