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Understanding the Thermal Impedance of Silicone Rubber/Hexagonal Boron Nitride Composites as Thermal Interface Materials

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Abstract

Silicone rubber (SR) composites are most widely used as thermal interface materials (TIMs) for electronics heat dissipation. Thermal impedance as the main bottleneck limiting the performance of TIMs is usually neglected. Herein, the thermal impedance of SR composites loaded with different levels of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as TIMs was elaborated for the first time by the ASTM D 5470 standard test and finite element analysis. It was found that elastic modulus and surface roughness of SR composites increased with the increase of h-BN content, indicating that the conformity was reduced. When the assembly pressure was 0.69 MPa, there existed an optimal h-BN content at which the contact resistance was minimum (0.39 K·cm2·W−1). Although the decreased bond line thickness (BLT) by increasing the assembly pressure was beneficial to reduce the thermal impedance, the proper assembly pressure should be selected to prevent the warpage of the contact surfaces and the increase in contact resistance, according to the compression properties of the SR composites. This study provides valuable insights into fabrication of high-performance TIMs for modern electronic device applications.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by Sichuan Science and Technology Program (No. 2022YFH0090) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Plastic/Rubber Complex Processing Technology, Polymer Research Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Yuan Ji, Shi-Da Han, Hong Wu & Shao-Yun Guo

  2. Institute of Chemical Materials, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, 621900, China

    Feng-Shun Zhang

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Systems Science and Technology, Akita Prefectural University, Akita, 015-0055, Japan

    Jian-Hui Qiu

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  1. Yuan Ji
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  2. Shi-Da Han
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  3. Hong Wu
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Correspondence to Hong Wu.

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Ji, Y., Han, SD., Wu, H. et al. Understanding the Thermal Impedance of Silicone Rubber/Hexagonal Boron Nitride Composites as Thermal Interface Materials. Chin J Polym Sci 42, 352–363 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-023-3023-2

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