Why use thermal interface materials with high thermal conductivity?

Recently, amidst the wave of industry development, the technical competition among various products has become increasingly fierce. Thermal interface materials, as key factors affecting the performance of many products, have also garnered significant attention. Our editors and colleagues were fortunate to participate in an industry exchange event that brought together numerous industry elites and professionals. It was a grand gathering where outstanding figures from various fields shared insights, exchanged experiences, and discussed cutting-edge trends in industry development. 

During the event, our editors and colleagues met several product R&D engineers who are experts with deep expertise and rich experience in the field of thermal interface material research and development. They engaged in in-depth discussions on current trends in thermal interface materials. 

Thermal conductivity, a critical parameter measuring the heat transfer performance of materials, became the central topic of discussion. Everyone knows that in the world of thermal interface materials, higher thermal conductivity means stronger heat transfer performance for a material. However, this is closely related to many complex factors. Generally speaking, thermal interface materials with high thermal conductivity often contain higher technological content, because achieving efficient heat conduction is not easy. This requires careful design and research in aspects such as molecular structure and component ratio of the material. The increase in technological content naturally reflects in price, so these materials usually cost more. 

These product R&D engineers mentioned a common phenomenon: customers' requirements for product performance are getting higher and higher. In today's rapidly evolving information age and ever-changing technology landscape, users' expectations for product usage experience are almost uncompromising. Take electronic products as an example; whether it's running speed, image quality, or device stability, all have become important criteria for customers to judge product quality. Among these, product cooling capability is particularly important. Because once a product lacks sufficient cooling capacity, it can easily crash due to overheating during prolonged use or high load operations, which is completely unacceptable for users. 

To solve this problem, the common practice nowadays is to install heat sinks on the heat sources of products. This process is like a "heat transfer battle" where heat sinks act as "carriers" of heat. Their task is to guide heat away from the surface of the heat source and into their interiors, thereby reducing the overall temperature of the device. However, there is an easily overlooked link in this seemingly simple process—the interface between the heat sink and the heat source. 

This is where thermal interface materials come into play. Their role should not be underestimated; they mainly fill the gap between the heat sink and the heat source. Don't underestimate this small filling action; it effectively excludes air from the interface gaps. Air is a "nemesis" of heat conduction; its presence greatly increases contact thermal resistance, thus affecting the efficiency of heat transfer. The filling of thermal interface materials is like opening up a "highway" for heat, significantly reducing contact thermal resistance between them and improving heat conduction efficiency. 

In our daily lives, examples like graphics cards and CPUs are typical. We often see heat sinks tightly connected to chips, seemingly seamless. However, there are still tiny gaps between them, and the air in these gaps will hinder heat transfer. Therefore, at this time, we need to use thermal grease to fill the gap between them to improve cooling effects. This is like injecting strong glue into the joints of a bridge, allowing heat to transfer more smoothly. 

Now look at communication devices under 5G technology; this is a brand new field with even higher performance requirements for equipment. Devices like 5G mobile phones, 5G base stations, servers, relays, etc. generate a lot of heat during operation. This is because the high-speed, low-latency characteristics of 5G technology require chips and circuits inside the equipment to work at higher frequencies, generating more heat. Under such circumstances, they all need to use thermal interface materials with high thermal conductivity to meet the cooling needs of the equipment. It can be said that thermal interface materials with high thermal conductivity have become the main trend of industry development. Of course, in this diversified market, besides some specific products requiring special thermal interface materials to meet specific needs, from the overall development direction, most thermal interface materials are developing towards high thermal conductivity. This is like an irresistible trend that pushes the entire thermal interface material industry forward continuously.