Improvement in the thermal conductivity of aluminum substrate for the desktop PC Central Processing Unit (CPU) by the Taguchi method

This paper examines the thermal conductivity of thin films (Cu or Ag) deposited on 1050 aluminum alloy substrates (99.57% purity) by various sputtering. The Taguchi method was used to clarify the influence of various deposition conditions (target, sputtering method, power, deposition time and annealing temperature). This paper employs the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to study the coating operation performance. The experimental results point out the optimum conditions of highly thermal conduction were the Ag target, sputtering method of RF, power of 300 W, deposition time of 15 min, and no annealing temperature. The sputtering method and power are the most significant factors among the five controllable factors affecting the thermal conductivity of aluminum substrate in the sputtering process.