SBIR Phase I: Smart Engineered Composites for Thermal Management

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I Project will synthesize and consolidate a smart composite material, copper-zirconium tungstate, with high thermal conductivity (>240 W/m.K) and low thermal expansion (< 5 x 10-6/K) for thermal management applications. As packaging densities and power requirements increase, more and more power is being generated per specific area, thereby generating more heat. The current chip performance limitation is related to packaging materials when considering the component size reduction. The recent findings of negative thermal expansion in zirconium tungstate (ZrW2O8) have attracted many interesting applications for this material particularly in composites where thermal expansion is a major concern. Copper (Cu) has good thermal conductivity but it is not currently in use as a thermal management material, because of its high thermal expansion mismatch with either silicon (Si) or gallium arsenide (GaAs). A composite such as Cu- ZrW2O8, consisting of a high-conductivity metallic matrix and ceramic phase with strongly negative coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is ideally suitable for electronic thermal management applications. In the project synthesis of Cu-ZrW2O8 composite will be achieved using the microwave plasma and low temperature chemical coating methods. Consolidation of Cu-ZrW2O8 composite will be carried out using a rapid consolidation technique, plasma pressure consolidation (P2C). Commercially, the major applications of this material are in substrates for microelectronics, and heat sinks in electronic devices. It will also improve the performance of ceramics in electrical insulators and power transistor modules.The other potential uses of zirconium tungstate are in thermal expansion compensation in dental fillings.