IMPROVING THE RESOLUTION OF STEADY-STATE, INFRARED-BASED THERMAL INTERFACE RESISTANCE MEASUREMENTS USING HIGH-PRECISION METROLOGY TO DETERMINE IN-SITU TIM THICKNESS

摘要

The performance characteristics of thermal interface materials (TIMs) are quickly outpacing our ability to measure them using steady-state techniques. In fact, scientists have turned to photothermal techniques like Time-domain Thermoreflectance (TDTR) to measure the impedance to heat flow across TIMs, namely due to their relatively low measurement uncertainties. However, such techniques are costly, require significant sample preparation, only measure local thermal impedances and are not yet equipped to measure thermal resistance as a function of pressure. Instead, it is desirable to maximize the resolution of traditional steady-state equipment for these types of measurements. In this work, we develop a more robust and accurate methodology to determine the temperature difference across the junction of a traditional steady-state apparatus using high accuracy measurements of in-situ TIM thickness in tandem with infrared thermography. This methodology eliminates a significant fraction of the uncertainty associated with the measurement of thermal interface resistance. Importantly, the use of this method improves the accuracy of the measurement device by an order of magnitude at interfacial thermal resistance values on the order of 1·10~(-6)m~2 ·K/W when compared to state-of-the-art, thermal probe-based measurement systems.