Publications Details
A Survey of Thermal Interface Materials
Commercially available thermal interface materials are investigated in this study. First, eight different samples were thermal cycled for 30 to 201 days from ambient to 125°C or ambient to 175°C in an accelerated aging test. Compared to the new samples, the aged samples exhibited varying optical and chemical changes. The most deteriorated samples were eliminated from the study and the remaining five samples underwent further analysis. A transient plane source measurement was conducted on four of the five remaining samples to verify their thermal conductivities, an off-gassing study was performed to detect volatile compounds, and a salt fog corrosion test was conducted to explore corrosion effects. The silicone pads and gels with diboron trioxide or aluminum oxide filler materials exhibited the best overall performance with the least amount of visual and spectroscopic degradation after thermal cycling. While the offgassing results were inconclusive, the silicone-based materials released approximately 1000 to 25000 ppb of volatile organic compounds, with Fujipoly’s GR130A gel performing the best, and Laird’s TFLEX760 and Parker Chomerics Therm-A-Gap Gel 30 releasing the most volatile compounds. None of the downselected samples exhibited corrosion effects in salt fog.