Thermal management with carbon nanotube architectures (THEMA-CNT)

Research Project, 2010 – 2013

To overcome the difficulties in the contemporary thermal management of Si components and packages made of ceramics and organic laminates, in this project we propose novel and scaleable cooling technologies that utilize carbon nanotubes and their architectures integrated on various electrical components to achieve cooling efficiency of 100 W/m2 on large area Si chips, 10 W/cm2 on ceramics/polymer packages and 1 kW/cm2 on micro hot spots. Our efforts in the project are focused on generating specifically tailored nanostructured carbon based materials that are crucial for the successful development of new thermal management technologies in current and future electronics. The technologies we are developing will enable direct integration of carbon nanotube architectures in electrical components and make a feasible protocol for upscaling for industrial use. As carbon nanotubes will be directly grown (and in some cases post-mounted) on Si chips/wafers and ceramic/plastic packages the process will be made compatible with conventional Si fabrication and micromodule packaging technologies, i.e. the technology would provide a ready protocol for large scale production of such components. Because of the compatibility with current technologies, the nanotube based cooling devices and production technologies will be cost effective and easy to commercialize. Since thermal management is the most crucial issue in today’s high performance electrical devices (processors, power transistors) the market potential of our innovation is enormous exceeding several billion € total sales every year.