Noncured Graphene Thermal Interface Materials for High-Power Electronics: Minimizing the Thermal Contact Resistance

We report on experimental investigation of thermal contact resistance, R, of the noncuring graphene thermal interface materials with the surfaces characterized by different degree of roughness, S. It is found that the thermal contact resistance depends on the graphene loading, ξ, non-monotonically, achieving its minimum at the loading fraction of ξ ~15 wt %. Decreasing the surface roughness by S~1 μm results in approximately the factor of ×2 decrease in the thermal contact resistance for this graphene loading. The obtained dependences of the thermal conductivity, KTIM, thermal contact resistance, R, and the total thermal resistance of the thermal interface material layer on ξ and S can be utilized for optimization of the loading fraction of graphene for specific materials and roughness of the connecting surfaces. Our results are important for the thermal management of high-power-density electronics implemented with diamond and other wide-band-gap semiconductors.