Researchers from the College of Materials Science and Engineering at Beijing University of Chemical Technology in China have determined a new method for enhancing heat dissipation in microelectronics based on research on plasma-treated h-BN fillers.
According to results published by Professor Yonglai Lu and Tui Ji, a master of engineering at the Center of Advanced Elastomer Materials, “effective heat dissipation is vital for improving long-term reliability and avoiding premature failure in microelectronics.” Traditionally, elastomer thermal interface materials are made of silicone rubber (SiR) and reinforced with ceramic fillers. However, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), considered by some to be “the ideal filler,” is difficult to process. The surface of the filler is also hard to modify with organically coupling agents, the currently favored solution, due to the low surface activity of h-BN.
To combat this problem, Lu and Ji coated h-BN fillers with liquid silicone rubber (LSR) via solution dispersion and subsequently treated them with argon cold plasma. According to the researchers, surface modification by cold plasma is highly efficient and only modifies surface properties. Modifying filler surfaces using cold plasma has been studied previously but not experimented with in depth. After treating the h-BN fillers, the researchers measured the interfacial thermal resistance and determined it to be decreased significantly as a result.
The researchers theorize in their report that the modification can be applied to high-performance elastomer thermal interface materials for enhanced thermal management of microelectronics. They plan to further improve the “interfacial interaction between the filler and matrix rubber grafting reactive silicone molecules onto the surface of a heat conductive filler.”
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