SBIR Fast-Track: Advanced Hexagonal Boron Nitride Composite Semiconductor Packaging for Enhanced Performance, Efficiency, and Protection

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Fast-Track project is the development of advanced thermally conductive and electrically insulating materials to improve the energy efficiency, performance, and reliability of next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) computing systems. AI computing represents a trillion-dollar market opportunity, but heat accumulation within semiconductor chips remains a major physical bottleneck. Rapid growth in artificial intelligence and edge computing electronics has created significant thermal management challenges that increase cooling energy consumption, limit chip performance and design flexibility, and raise infrastructure costs. This project addresses these challenges by developing new semiconductor packaging materials that can dissipate heat more efficiently while maintaining electrical insulation, package protection, and manufacturing compatibility. Improved thermal management can reduce cooling burdens in data centers, support more compact and powerful edge computing systems, and contribute to more sustainable computing infrastructure. The project also supports domestic semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging capabilities by strengthening the United States materials supply chain for next-generation electronics. Commercial opportunities include semiconductor packaging, high-bandwidth memory chips, and other thermal management applications requiring high reliability, including robotics and aerospace technologies. The proposed technology is expected to provide a durable competitive advantage through proprietary materials processing methods, scalable manufacturing capability, and integration with semiconductor testing and packaging workflows, enabling early commercialization in advanced semiconductor packaging markets. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Fast-Track project focuses on developing functionalized ultra-thin hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets for thermally conductive and electrically insulating semiconductor molding compounds used in advanced chip packaging. Existing semiconductor packaging materials face major limitations in balancing thermal conductivity, dielectric performance, coefficient of thermal expansion matching, viscosity control, and manufacturing compatibility. Conventional filler systems have limited thermal performance and often require high loading levels that reduce processability. This project investigates a proprietary polymer-assisted ball-mill approach that enables simultaneous exfoliation, size control, and surface functionalization of hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets to improve dispersion, filler–matrix bonding, and thermal transport within highly filled epoxy systems. The research objectives include optimizing nanosheet morphology and surface chemistry, controlling rheological behavior for transfer and compression molding processes, and evaluating thermal conductivity, dielectric properties Dk/Df, coefficient of thermal expansion, and package reliability under thermal cycling conditions. The project will also evaluate compatibility with semiconductor packaging structures through rheological characterization, thermal testing, X-ray inspection, and cross-sectional analysis. Anticipated outcomes include improved thermal conductivity, reduced thermal resistance, enhanced package reliability, and scalable manufacturing pathways for advanced semiconductor packaging applications. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.