Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials for Thermal Management of Microsystems

Summary form only given. One important function of microsystem packaging is to remove the heat generated by the integrated circuits (ICs). The thermal management of microsystems has now become more crucial as the power density of ICs increases dramatically. To remove the big amount of heat is a big challenge for the packaging technology. An attractive solution is to utilize new developed nanotechnologies and nanomaterials to enhance the heat removal from microsystems. This paper generally reviews the related research work performed at SMIT center. Three approaches are presented: thermal interface materials (TIMs) made of electrospun nanofibers and nano thermally conductive particles, microchannel coolers based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and CNT-based high thermally conductive interconnects. These three techniques provide a systematic solution to the efficient thermal management of microsystems.