Nano-engineered Carbon Nanofiber-copper Composite Thermal Interface Material for Efficient Heat Conduction

Efforts in integrated circuit (IC) packaging technologies have recently been focused on management of increasing heat density associated with high frequency and high density circuit designs. While current flip-chip package designs can accommodate relatively high amounts of heat density, new materials need to be developed to manage thermal effects of next-generation integrated circuits. Carbon nanofibers (CNF) have been shown to significantly enhance thermal conduction in the axial direction and thus can be considered to be a candidate for future thermal interface materials by facilitating efficient interfacial thermal transport.