Thermal Interface Materials

Increasing electronic device performance has historically been accompanied by increasing power and increasing on-chip power density both of which present a cooling challenge. Thermal interface material (TIM) plays a key role in reducing the package thermal resistance and the thermal resistance between the electronic device and the external cooling components. This chapter reviews the progress made in the TIM development in the past 5 years. Rheology-based modeling and design is discussed for the widely used polymeric TIMs. The recently emerging technology of nanoparticles and nanotubes is also discussed for TIM applications. This chapter also includes TIM testing methodology and concludes with suggestion for the future TIM development directions.