Effect of Bonding Pressure on Thermal Performance of Graphene-enhanced Thermal Interface Materials for Immersion Cooling Applications

Graphene, due to its exceptional mechanical, optical, electrical, physical and thermal properties, has attracted strong interest for both fundamental studies and real applications. Among all these properties, the extraordinary high thermal conductivity makes graphene an ideal cooling material for power devices and systems. In mean time, rapid growth of information and AI technology continues to push power density and integration level in electronics devices, leading to an increase in greater heat dissipation causing lower performance, and shorter operating life. In this paper, the technology of a new graphene-enhanced thermal interface material (GT-TIM) manufacturing process is described. The effect of bonding pressures on thermal performance of the GT-TIM with different thicknesses is presented. The immersion test up to 1-month in immersion condition was carried out. The results show that the GT-TIM can be exposed to very high bonding pressure without delamination, well beyond normally used bonding pressure regions and extremely low thermal resistance in the range of 4-5 Kmm2/W at 40 psi (276kPa) at a thickness of 0,2 mm. In a typical biocompatible coolant environment, the thermal performance is basically intact after one month´s exposure. It is thus concluded that that this class of the novel GT-TIM has very interesting feature that can potentially be used for many large power cooling applications, especially for immersion cooling.