Download SMARTIM Fighting the bottlenecks of cooling Cooling High Power

Saving Energy using Nano based Interface Materials
Fighting the bottlenecks of cooling
Power saving by efficient cooling
Thermal Interface Materials (TIMs) are identified by the
International Roadmap for Semiconductors as one of the
main bottlenecks in electronics cooling and as an area that
needs to adapt new and emerging technologies to cope with
the predicted increases in power density. SMARTIM is a new
nano-based interface material technology that can handle
future power densities today.
30-60% of the power consumption in electronics is used for
active cooling. Optimizing and improving the efficiency of
heat transfer across interfaces can reduce the power
required for active cooling or possibly enable switching to a
passive cooling solution.
SMARTIM
SMARTIM was developed at Chalmers University of
Technology with support from the Nanopack project.
Measurements show that SMARTIM can reach higher than
20W/mK of effective thermal conductivity, roughly 4-5 times
higher than best currently available commercial greases. The
technology has been transfered into SHT Smart High Tech AB
to introduce the materials on the market.
The material technology concept relies on using a polymer
nanofiber matrix in combination with a specially designed
and infused alloy system. The concept can be tailored to
specific applications by using different material systems
resulting in optimized solutions in terms of conductivity,
mechanical properties and cost.
Cooling High Power LEDs
The future is LEDs. However, a well known problem is
handling the dense heat energy generated by high power
LEDs. To demonstrate the cooling capabilities of SMARTIM,
two material systems have been applied and compared to
commercially available high performance greases. The result
indicate roughly 55% reduction in the thermal resistance
from heatsink to substrate.
Figure 1: SMARTIM macro- and microscopically
Reducing size
Thermal management is today one of the main obstacles
when it comes to reducing system size and increasing
integration. Using improved thermal interface materials
allows system engineers and designers to go beyond what is
possible with conventional materials.
Parameter \ TIM
Applied power
Substrate temperature (max
fan speed, @RT)
Relative thermal resistance
24W
36°C
SMARTTIM
24W
30°C
100%
45%
Grease
www.sht-tek.com
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