Design of a Static TIM Tester

Abstract

Testing the thermal properties of thermal interface material (TIM) has been a big challenge for decades. Recent development trends made this challenge even bigger, as now the values that have to be measured are extremely small. In this paper, we present a newly developed TIM tester equipment that is targeting to overcome all the problems that present industrial TIM testing methods face. The main idea behind our design is to use the capabilities of microelectronics in order to make small sized sensors both for temperature and heat-flux sensings. This way it is possible to place these sensors in the closest proximity of the measured sample. This paper presents details of all the technical solutions of the newly developed static TIM tester that is capable to measure Rth of unit area values in the order of 0.01 K cm2/W with good accuracy. Special attention is made to analyze and eliminate the possible sources of measurement inaccuracy. A number of measurement examples prove the usability of the developed measuring instrument.