Thermal resistance of thermal conductive adhesive anchored carbon nanotubes interface material

Due to their high intrinsic axial thermal conductivity, carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays have generated much interest as next generation thermal interface materials. A significant barrier in their future use is CNT-substrate thermal boundary resistance. For this reason much research has been done in examining improved array adhesion methods. This paper models the thermal resistance of a novel interface structure which shows promise in achieving low thermal resistance and high mechanical compliance. Through the use of a thermal conductive adhesive attachment, overall thermal resistances below 1 mm2 KW−1 can potentially be achieved using a vertically aligned CNT array, which will enable development of future high performance electronic packages.