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Interfacial Thermal Conductivity Using Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes, Carissa Don Russell

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Shrinking volume, coupled with higher performance, microprocessors and integrated circuits have led to serious heat dissipation issues. In an effort to mitigate the excessive amounts of waste heat and ensure electronic survivability, heat sinks and spreaders are incorporated into heat generating device structures. This inevitability creates a thermal pathway through an interface. Thermal interfaces can possess serious thermal resistances for heat conduction. The introduction of a thermal interface material (TIM) can drastically increase the thermal performance of the component. Exceptional thermal properties of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have spurred interest in their use as TIMs. MWCNTs inherently grow in vertically-oriented, …