Modeling of nanostructured polymer-metal composite for thermal interface material applications

Previous studies have discovered a unique type of nanostructured polymer-metal composite for thermal interface material with effective thermal conductivity of 8 W/mK. It is a promising result but extensive efforts are still required to further enhance the thermal conductivity. Therefore, this paper will try to help the process with modeling and simulation. Calculations reveal the alignment of the fibers have insignificant influence. Therefore volume percentages of fiber together with mean interface temperature become the dominating parameters of effective thermal conductivities of thermal interface material. Based on this approximation, simulation was taken which showed good results in comparison with experimental data. However, the preferred volume percentage of fibers (33%) was slightly too large according to the surface image of thermal interface material.