Development and application of thermally functionalized structural materials for heat spreading in handheld devices

Recent developments for clad metals enable thermal functionalization of structural components in consumer and handheld devices. By selectively replacing under-utilized structural space with highly conductive materials, thermal heat spreading performance in these devices can be substantially improved. A new composite Stainless Steel- Aluminum material system will be presented to serve both structural and heat spreading purposes, utilizing high stiffness stainless steel skins clad over a low density, highly conductive aluminum core. This configuration melds the best properties of each material, creating a fully formable composite structure with excellent mechanical and bulk thermal transport properties. It will be shown that using these conventional materials, the bulk thermal transport in the aluminum core can provide improved heat spreading compared to common micron-scale carbon film based materials, while maintaining stiffness and without taking up z-height.