PROJECT TITLE :

Thin Flexible Thermal Ground Planes: Fabrication and Scaling Characterization

ABSTRACT:

Thermal ground planes (TGPs) are passive thermal management devices that utilize the latent heat associated with section change to realize high effective thermal conductance, just like heat pipes. In this paper, we develop versatile TGPs with an ultra-skinny thickness of zero.five mm using copper-cladded polyimide as the encasing material, woven copper mesh as a wick, and electroplated copper pillars to support a vapor core. The lowest thermal resistance of one TGP is characterized to be only one/three that of an equivalently sized copper heat spreader. The results of size scaling of evaporator and condenser, and overall TGP sizes on the thermal resistances of TGPs are experimentally characterized. A straightforward series thermal resistance model, which accounts for vapor core thermal resistance, is developed to predict the measured results. This experimentally validated model will be used for the look of TGPs with varying sizes of evaporator and condenser, and overall size. [2015-0032]