Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Copper–Carbon Composites in Electronic Packaging

Abstract

In the field of power electronics, thermal management of silicon chips plays a key role in our ability to increase their performance. It is necessary to dissipate the excess heat in order to prevent heating and consequent deterioration of silicon chips. In this article, we mainly focus on understanding the thermal management requirements of electronic packaging, the key scientific and technological issues, advances in terms of materials, design and processing, and future prospects of the field. In specific, we address how the competing physical, mechanical, and thermal requirements are optimized in heat sinks. Many of the issues addressed can be equally applicable to the design of any component with similar thermal and mechanical requirements including that of heat exchanger tubes. Although, in this article, we focus our attention on copper–carbon system, concepts presented here can be easily extended to other material systems.