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Carbon nanotube thermal interface material for high-brightness light-emitting-diode cooling

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K Zhang1, Y Chai2, M M F Yuen1, D G W Xiao3 and P C H Chan2

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Aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays were fabricated from a multilayer catalyst configuration by microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The effects of the thickness and annealing of the aluminum layer on the CNT synthesis and thermal performance were investigated. An experimental study of thermal resistance across the CNT array interface using the modified ASTM D5470 standard was conducted. It was demonstrated that the CNT-thermal interface material (CNT-TIM) reduced the thermal interfacial resistance significantly compared with the state-of-art commercial TIM. The optimized thermal resistance of the CNT arrays is as low as 7 mm2 K W−1. The light performance of high-brightness light-emitting diode (HB-LED) packages using the aligned CNT-TIM was tested. The results indicated that the light output power was greatly improved with the use of the CNT-TIM. The usage of the CNT-TIM can be also extended to other microelectronics thermal management applications.


PACS

81.16.Be Chemical synthesis methods

81.40.Ef Cold working, work hardening; annealing, post-deformation annealing, quenching, tempering recovery, and crystallization

85.60.Jb Light-emitting devices

66.70.-f Nonelectronic thermal conduction and heat-pulse propagation in solids; thermal waves

Subjects

Electronics and devices

Optics, quantum optics and lasers

Condensed matter: structural, mechanical & thermal

Nanoscale science and low-D systems

Dates

Issue 21 (28 May 2008)

Received 13 January 2008, in final form 20 March 2008

Published 23 April 2008



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