Editor’s note: This question was asked in response to Electronics Cooling’s recent webinar by Carl Zwebin. To view the webinar, click here.
Question: Are there ways to use some of the more expensive materials in cost-sensitive applications?
Answer: There may be applications for which expensive materials are cost effective as is. However, there are many cases where it is not necessary to make the entire component out of one material. In this case, the expensive material, which typically has a very high thermal conductivity, is used in combination with cheaper materials, and is placed in regions where heat dissipation is most critical. This is referred to as a hybrid approach.
The thermoelectric cooler I showed earlier, which combines highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite and Al/SiC, is a good example.
-Carl Zwebin
