Reduction of Device Operating Temperatures with Graphene-Filled Thermal Interface Materials

Abstract

The majority of research into few layer graphene (FLG) thermal interface materials (TIM) concerns the direct quantification of innate composite properties with much less direct analysis of these materials in realistic applications. In this study, equilibrium temperatures of engineered device substitutes fixed to passive heat sink solutions with varying FLG concentration TIMs are experimentally measured at varying heat dissipation rates. A custom, precisely-controlled heat source’s temperature is continually measured to determine equilibrium temperature at a particular heat dissipation. It is found that altering the used FLG TIM concentrations from 0 vol.% to as little as 7.3 vol.% resulted in a decrease of combined TIM and passively-cooled heat sink thermal resistance from 4.23∘C/W to 2.93∘C/W, amounting to a reduction in operating temperature of ≈108∘C down to ≈85∘C at a heat dissipation rate of 20 W. The results confirm FLG TIMs’ promising use in the application of device heat dissipation in a novel, controllable experimental technique.