| AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Advanced Surface Engineering Division | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session SE+SS-WeM |
| Session: | Surface Engineering for Thermal Management |
| Presenter: | D. Frank Ogletree, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab |
| Authors: | S. Kaur, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab N. Raravikar, Intel Corporation D.F. Ogletree, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Thermal transport is restricted in systems including carbon nanotubes (CNT) due to high thermal interface resistance. We have substantially improved thermal transport at CNT-metal interfaces by functionalizing the contacting surfaces with amino-propyl silane to form covalent chemical bonds bridging the CNT-metal gap. This strategy was suggested by molecular dynamics calculations of Hu et al. (1)
We have characterized the resulting interface using multi-frequency and multi-wavelength time-domain thermo-reflectance (TDTR) measurements, which are able to independently determine interface and bulk CNT contributions to thermal transport. TDTR analysis showed that thermal contacts were made between a functionalized Al surface and 4-5% of the CNTs in an array grown on silicon. The intrinsic CNT interface conductivity exceeded 300 MW/m2-K, resulting in an effective thermal interface resistance of less than 0.8 mm2-K/W. Successful interface functionalization was independently verified by mechanical adhesion testing, which showed a correlation between interface strength and thermal transport, as discussed by Prashar. (2).
(1) Ming Hu, Pawel Keblinski, Jian-Sheng Wang, Nachiket Raravikar, J. Appl. Phys. 104 083503 (2008).
(2) Ravi Prashar, Appl. Phys. Lett. 94 041905 (2009).