Thermally Conductive Adhesives Keep Their Cool by Master Bond

Electronics are hot right now-literally. Chip makers have significantly upped the ante on microprocessor power and density over the past decade. And these powerful microprocessors are shoehorned into tiny mobile and embedded devices that make thermal management all the more difficult. Design engineers charged with keeping these devices cool have a big challenge on their hands.

How big a challenge? Today's microprocessors already have to dissipate up to 100 W. And that number is bound to go up as chip makers continue to increase the operating frequency and number of CMOS devices within each package. In fact, semiconductor industry projections have microprocessor power dissipation densities rising to 200 W/cm2 over the next decade or so. What's more, modern electronics packaging techniques will exacerbate the thermal issues caused by rising power dissipation requirements. For example, some of the new space-saving system in a package (SiP) designs stack chips and other electronic components on top of one another, which can make it more difficult to remove heat.

Smart engineers have long taken a systems approach to thermal management, employing a wide variety of active and passive cooling measures to get the heat away from sensitive electronic components. Thermal interface materials, which fill in the air gaps between thermal transfer surfaces, are one of the key cooling measures.