SBIR Phase II: Low Cost Pressure Infiltration Casting Process to Support High Volume Manufacture of Graphite-Metal Thermal Management Components

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project seeks to develop the use of a gas pressure infiltration casting process to manufacture graphite-metal billet materials that would be used to produce components for high power electronic device packaging. The heat dissipation rate of electronic devices has increased dramatically as a result of advances in semiconductor materials, faster switching speeds, compression of circuit physical architecture, and miniaturization of device envelops. These market trends are expected to continue and there is a critical need for advanced materials with improved thermal conductivity capable of meeting the package heat dissipation requirements of current and future high power electronic systems. In addition the materials will need to have a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) that minimizes the CTE mismatch that occurs at the interface between packaging components of different materials. The objective of the Phase II effort is the development and demonstration of cost-effective package assemblies that incorporate graphite-metal components with a thermal conductivity of from 500 to 600 W/m-oK and a coefficient of thermal expansion that can be adjusted between 5.0 and 10 ppm/oC. The markets for packaging products based upon the graphite-metal material technology include: (1) RF power amplifiers for communications systems; (2) switching devices for power conversion systems; and (3) light emitting diode devices for solid state lighting. The research will produce the key knowledge required to enable the production of low-cost, high-volume graphite-metal components to satisfy the packaging requirements for the above applications. The packaging products supported by this manufacturing technology will benefit a broad spectrum of commercial, industrial, and military high power electronics end users. The adoption and wide-spread use of the graphite-metal packaging products for electronic systems will enable commercial electronic devices based upon more efficient higher power semiconductor materials that will provide benefit to society in the form of reduced energy consumption and improved environmental quality.