Voiding Effects on the Thermal Response of Metallic Phase Change Materials Under Pulsed Power Loading

Abstract

Metallic phase change materials (PCMs) have been demonstrated as an excellent alternative to act as a passive cooling system for pulse power applications. The possibility of integrating metallic PCMs, directly on top of a heat source, reducing the thermal resistance between the device and the cooling solution, could result in a significant improvement in thermal management for transient applications. However, the effectiveness of this method of implementation will depend on the quality of the interface between the metallic PCM and the heat source. For this work, a metallic PCM (49Bi/18Pb/12Sn/21In-Bi/Pb/Sn/In for simplicity) was placed directly on top of a device that has a layer of silicon nitride on the top. The device was pulsed with powers of 40W – 160W (84W/cm2 – 338W/cm2) with a 20 ms duration. After reaching the maximum power, the device was pulsed for a second cycle, and the temperature profiles were compared. Micrographical inspections, at the interlayer between the silicon nitride and metallic PCM, were performed before and after the pulses and compared. A maximum temperature of ≈20–25% higher was observed in the performance (at 80W) after pulse cycling. A visual inspection at the mating surfaces, between the metallic PCM and device, showed a clear difference between the contact surfaces before and after pulses. Significant voiding at the PCM interfacial layer was observed after cyclic loading which is believed to be the cause of the recorded increment in maximum temperature.

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“…Sometimes, voiding in PCMs might lead to degraded performance after a number of cycles. This has been reported for metallic PCMs [123], paraffin [124] and eutectic PCMs [125].…”

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“…Practical implementation of PCMs into new substrate or carrier configurations is then another logical and challenging next-step opportunity to address transient response. Nonsolid-state PCMs have challenges associated with encapsulation, voiding, and longterm reliability [157]. However, as discussed in Sec.…”