Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute are developing a solid composite material, made of silver and diamond to cool small, powerful microelectronics used in defense systems. The diamonds provide the bulk of thermal conductivity, while the silver suspends the diamond particles within the composite and contributes to high thermal conductivity.
The research is focused on producing a silver-diamond thermal shim of unprecedented thinness – 250 microns or less. The ratio of silver to diamond in the material can be tailored to allow the shim to be bonded with low thermal-expansion stress to the high-power wide-bandgap semiconductors planned for next generation phased-array radars.
