Composite thermal annealed pyrolytic graphite heat spreaders produced with field-assisted sintering technology

The fabrication, testing and modeling of thermal annealed pyrolytic graphite (TPG) encapsulated heat spreaders was explored for potential use in the cooling of microelectronic devices. The 60 mm diameter, 5 mm thick heat spreaders were created using field-assisted sintering technology (FAST). The TPG encapsulated heat spreaders were compared to their simple aluminum and copper versions through both experimental measurements and numerical calculations. The results show that TPG encapsulated heat spreaders yield lower and more uniform surface temperatures when exposed to identical heating conditions. Heat spreaders such as these should be considered for cooling the next generation of high power density microelectronic devices.