Thermal conductivity substrate materials

CVD plays an increasingly important part in the design and processing of advanced electronic conductors and insulators as well as related structures, such as diffusion barriers and high thermal-conductivity substrates (heat-sinks). In these areas, materials such as titanium nitride, silicon nitride, silicon oxide, diamond, and aluminum nitride are of particular importance. These compounds are all produced by CVD. 1 1 PI... 

A variety of noncorrosive, thermaUy conductive silicone adhesives are available that are suitable for use in bonding hybrid circuit substrates, connecting power semiconductor components and devices to heat sinks as well as for use in other bonding applications requiring thermal conductivity. The flowable versions are used as thermally conductive potting materials for transformers, power supplies, coils, and other electronic devices that require improved thermal dissipation [41]. 

Single-crystal sUicon has also been employed as substrate material, particularly in multichip module (MGM)-Si appUcations. As a substrate, sUicon offers good thermal conductivity and matches the GTE of the devices mounted on it it does, however, have a relatively high dielectric constant and is very britde. 

In appUcations in which electrical conductivity is required, metals, copper, tungsten, molybdenum, and Kovar [12606-16-5] are the preferred chip-carrier materials. Metals have exceUent thermal conductivities. Tables 2 and 3 Ust the various materials used for substrates, along with their mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. 

Cases can be classified as either hermetic or nonhermetic, based on their permeabiUty to moisture. Ceramics and metals are usually used for hermetic cases, whereas plastic materials are used for nonhermetic appHcations. Cases should have good electrical insulation properties. The coefficient of thermal expansion of a particular case should closely match those of the substrate, die, and sealing materials to avoid excessive residual stresses and fatigue damage under thermal cycling loads. Moreover, since cases must provide a path for heat dissipation, high thermal conductivity is also desirable. 

BeryUium is used in sateUite stmctures in the form of both sheet and extmded tubing and is a very important material for aU types of space optics. BeryUium oxide ceramic apphcations take advantage of high room temperature thermal conductivity, very low electrical conductivity, and high transparency to microwaves in microelectronic substrate apphcations. 

Other sohd-state apphcations of sihcon carbide include its use as an electroluminescent diode for use in sound recording equipment and photomultipliers and controllers. It has been studied as a reflective surface for lasers. By combining its excellent thermal conductivity and high electrical resistance, sihcon carbide has also found apphcation as an insulating material for integrated circuit substrates. 

Applied Sciences, Inc. has, in the past few years, used the fixed catalyst fiber to fabricate and analyze VGCF-reinforced composites which could be candidate materials for thermal management substrates in high density, high power electronic devices and space power system radiator fins and high performance applications such as plasma facing components in experimental nuclear fusion reactors. These composites include carbon/carbon (CC) composites, polymer matrix composites, and metal matrix composites (MMC). Measurements have been made of thermal conductivity, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), tensile strength, and tensile modulus. Representative results are described below. 

The surface of a material exposed to the environment experiences wear, corrosion, radiation, electrical, or magnetic fields and other phenomena. It must have the properties needed to withstand the environment or to provide certain desirable properties, such as reflectivity, semiconductivity, high thermal conductivity, or erosion resistance. Depositing a coating on a substrate produces a composite material and, as such, allows it to have surface property, which can be entirely different from those of the bulk material. 

Heat dissipation can be effectively dealt with by using substrate materials such as aluminum nitride, beryllia and, more recently, diamond which combine electrical insulation with high thermal conductivity. The relevant properties of these three materials are shown in Table 14.1. 

Substrate material Price per unit area (arb. units) Dielectric permittivity of insulator Maximum working temperature (K) Resistivity of dielectric layer (fl-cm) Density (g/cm3) Linear expansion coefficient x i[Pg.490]

Photothermal decomposition of palladium acetate by scanned cw Ar+ laser irradiation produces metal features that exhibit pronounced periodic structure as a function of laser power, scan speed, substrate and beam diameter, as shown in Figures 3 and 4. The periodic structure is a function of the rate at which the film is heated by absorption of the incident laser radiation coupled with the rate at which the heat of the decomposition reaction is liberated. This coupling generates a reaction front that outruns the scanning laser until quenched by thermal losses, the process to be repeated when the laser catches up and reaches unreacted material. Clearly, such a thermal process is also affected by the thermal conductivity of the substrate, the optical absorption of the substrate in those cases where the overlying film is not fully absorbing,... 

The energy densities of laser beams which are conventionally used in the production of thin films is about 103 — 104Jcm 2s, and a typical substrate in the semiconductor industry is a material having a low thermal conductivity, and therefore the radiation which is absorbed by the substrate is retained near to the surface. Table 2.8 shows the relevant physical properties of some typical substrate materials, which can be used in the solution of Fourier s equation given above as a first approximation to the real situation. 

To rationalize the isothermal assumption, Dykhuizen 39() discussed two related physical phenomena. First, heat may be drawn out of the substrate from an area that is much larger than that covered by asplat. Thus, the 1 -D assumption in the Stefan problem becomes invalid, and a solution of multidimensional heat conduction may make the interface between a splat and substrate closer to isothermal. Second, the contact resistance at the interface is deemed to be the largest thermal resistance retarding heat removal from the splat. If this resistance does not vary much with substrate material, splat solidification should be independent of substrate thermal properties. Either of the phenomena would result in a heat-transfer rate that is less dependent on the substrate properties, but not as high as that calculated by Madej ski based on the... 

At a given (low) temperature and pressure a crystalline phase of some substance is thermodynamically stable vis a vis the corresponding amorphous solid. Furthermore, because of its inherent metastability, the properties of the amorphous solid depend, to some extent, on the method by which it is prepared. Just as in the cases of other substances, H20(as) is prepared by deposition of vapor on a cold substrate. In general, the temperature of the substrate must be far below the ordinary freezing point and below any possible amorphous crystal transition point. In addition, conditions for deposition must be such that the heat of condensation is removed rapidly enough that local crystallization of the deposited material is prevented. Under practical conditions this means that, since the thermal conductivity of an amorphous solid is small at low temperature, the rate of deposition must be small. 

The thermal conductivity of suspended graphene has been calculated by measuring the frequency shift of the G-band in the Raman spectrum with varying laser power. These measurements yielded a value for thermal conductivity of 4840 5300 W m 1 K 1 [23], better than that of SWCNTs, with the exception of crystalline ropes of nanotubes, which gave values up to 5800 W m 1 K 1 [24]. Even when deposited on a substrate, the measured thermal conductivity is 600 W m 1 K 1 [25], higher than in commonly used heat dissipation materials such as copper and silver. 

Microhotplates, however, are not only used for metal-oxide-based gas sensor applications. In all cases, in which elevated temperatures are required, or thermal decoupling from the bulk substrate is necessary, microhotplate-like structures can be used with various materials and detector configurations [25]. Examples include polymer-based capacitive sensors [26], pellistors [27-29], GasFETs [30,31], sensors based on changes in thermal conductivity [32], or devices that rely on metal films [33,34]. Only microhotplates for chemoresistive metal-oxide materials will be further detailed here. The relevant design considerations will be addressed. 

Thermoplastics have two properties which make them particularly suited to ultrasonic welding (a) low thermal conductivity and (b) melting or softening temperatures of between 100 and 200 °C. As soon as the ultrasonic power is switched off the substrate or bulk material becomes a heat sink, giving rapid cooling of the welded joint. When more traditional conductive heating is used for welding however the thermal... 

A GaN substrate would be a help in this respect but it would need to be semi-insulating. In addition, GaN has a poor thermal conductivity and is not very suitable due to this negative material property. Aluminum nitride substrates may become the substrate of choice for GaN high-frequency applications. It has a reasonable thermal conductivity and is intrinsically semi-insulating but only time will tell. 

The simplest recording medium is a bilayer structure. It is constructed by first evaporating a highly reflective aluminum layer onto a suitable disk substrate. Next, a thin film (15-50 nm thick) of a metal, such as tellurium, is vacuum deposited on top of the aluminum layer. The laser power required to form the mark is dependent on the thermal characteristics of the metal film. Tellurium, for example, has a low thermal diffusivity and a melting point of 452 °C which make it an attractive recording material. The thermal diffusivity of the substrate material should also be as low as possible, since a significant fraction of the heat generated in the metal layer can be conducted to the substrate. For this reason, low cost polymer substrates such as poly (methylmethacrylate) or poly (vinyl chloride) are ideal. 

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