Develop new formulation for high performance soft thermal pad

• Main Author: Foo, Shi Rui.
• Other Authors: Tan Lay Poh
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Organic/Polymer electronics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/15354
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In the thermal management materials market, there are strong interest and huge demand on thermal pad product, however, the hardness and thermal conductivity of current thermal pad products cannot meet certain requirements for high end electrical devices. In this final year project, we find that the root cause to the hardness and thermal conductivity performance are due to the type/function group of silicone gel used for the matrix and the size/shape/type/amount of the filler added in the matrix affect the hardness as well. There is no direct relationship between the particle size and hardness. However, the higher concentration of the filler added into the matrix, the harder the thermal pad is which varies linearly in a direct relationship. The type and concentration of filler selected dominantly decides the thermal conductivity of the thermal pad. 5 silicone gels are evaluated in lab. SE gel of hardness 29 shore00 reduces 27.5% the hardness of current market product at the same formulation of hardness 40 shore00. For the case of FX gel, there is no reading for its hardness due to the limitation of durometer, Teclock GS-710 (shore00). While for the case of thermal conductivity, the higher the filler content, the higher it is for the thermal conductivity. And different types of fillers used affect the thermal conductivity differently. However, they do not vary in a linear relationship. The formulation of SE gel with Aluminium oxide (1) developed here has the highest thermal conductivity of 1.6W/mk, which it improves an average of 60% in conductivity than commercial product of 1.0 W/mk conductivity. More improved methods in optimizing the selected formulation of SE gel with Aluminium oxide (1) can be further reviewed with CNT array films.