Wafer-scale PBF-LB/M additive manufacturing of SnAg3 as thermal interface materials for advanced high-power electronics cooling

To support the miniaturization of electronics with increasing power, advanced cooling strategies are needed. Unlike conventional cooling pathways for wafer-scale electronics that involve the use of thermal pastes, we introduce an additive manufacturing route using laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) to fabricate 50–200 μm thick SnAg3 deposits that function as thermal interfaces between the Si substrate and the heat exchanger. The results reveal that by fine tuning the PBF-LB/M process parameters, it is possible to engineer the microstructure of the printed thermal interface materials onto Si wafer and to limit the Si damage. These findings demonstrate a promising solution for wafer-scale additive manufacturing of advanced cooling architectures, enabling the fabrication of high-power electronics.