Thermal management technologies for electronics based on multiwalled carbon nanotube bundles: As power consumption increases, so does the need for more efficient heat removal technologies

Journal article, 2009

As electronic circuits grow denser and their power consumption per unit area is increasing, new, more efficient technologies for heat removal are necessary. Heat fluxes from the IC on the order of 100 W/cm 2 (1 million W/m 2) are not rare. A heat transfer coefficient (including a possible area enlarging factor) of 20,000 W/m 2K is needed to accommodate a heat flux of 100 W/ cm 2 at a temperature difference of 50 K. The application of nanotechnologies is considered as a revolutionary approach to meet the tougher requirements for thermal management of electronics. There are two possible approaches to improve the cooling of microelectronics packages. The first is to improve the thermal conductivity of the packaging material and package geometry so that the thermal gradient within it becomes smaller. The second is to improve the heat removal, i.e., increase the effect of the convective heat transfer, from the surface or from the inside of the package.