High Conductivity Hybridized Graphite Reinforced Al Heat Sinks for Advanced Interceptor Missile Systems

Hybrid metal matrix composites are offered to meet the needs of high thermal conductivity heat sinks for electronic processors in advanced interceptor systems. MMCC's graphite fiber reinforced composite MetGraf 4-230 will serve as a skin to highly conductive cores of advanced graphitic materials. In plane thermal conductivity will be from 560 to 1120 W/mK while high through thermal conductivity paths of ~500 W/mK are selectively located under devices generating waste heat. Special design of "Z" sinking inserts will lead to highly efficient heat transfer into graphitic materials that normally have very low transverse thermal conductivity. The use of MetGraf 4-230 as a skin will eliminate the tendency of delamination of the graphitic insert and resultant thermal decoupling and will result in a robust, damage tolerant part. Further, the CTE matching will permit hard bonding to electronic devices which in turn, will result in lower contact resistance and lower junction temperatures in the electronic devices. Three alternative hybridizing insert materials will be investigated and characterized. Prototypes of each candidate system will be manufactured by the near net shape Advanced Pressure Infiltration Casting Process (APICT) for evaluation by the prime contractor.