Review of current progress of thermal interface materials for electronics thermal management applications

Increasing power densities within microelectronic systems place an ever increasing demand on the thermal management. Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are used to fill air gaps at the interface between two materials, greatly increasing the thermal conductance when solid surface are attached together. The last decade has provided significant development on high-performing TIMs, and this paper makes a summarized review on recent progress on the topic. Current state of the art commercial TIM types are presented, and discussed in regards to their advantages and disadvantages. Two main categories of TIMs with high interest are then reviewed: continuous metal phase TIMs and carbon nanotube array TIMs.