Novel Thermal Management Materials Technologies for High Power Naval Systems

Heat dissipation requirements have become the critical limiter of performance, efficiency, lifetime, and lifecycle costs as performance demands on electronics increase. This is especially a challenge in naval systems, including phased-array radar, smart weapons, electronic countermeasures (ECM), directed energy weapons, and electronics counter-countermeasures (ECCM). High performance passive cooling requires the use of advanced materials capable of dissipating heat from deep within circuits, where only electrical insulators can be placed. The thermal performance of existing dielectric thermal materials is often inadequate, and they are frequently incompatible with physical and mechanical requirements and fabrication processes. The proposed work will incorporate boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) into common microparticle-polymer composites to increase heat transfer between particles and?is expected to increase the thermal conductivity of many thermal management materials to > 10 W/m·K. In-house experiments have validated this concept achieving > 3 W/m·K while maintaining dielectric character. In Phase II, prototype formulations of multiple thermal materials, gap fillers, thermal greases, adhesives, topside coatings, transport materials, and heat spreaders, will be optimized and evaluated based on thermal performance, secondary performance characteristics, and will be integrated into relevant simulated environments.