Principal investigator: Sheng Shen
University: Carnegie Mellon University
Industry partner: NovoLINC, Inc.
Heat rejection technologies are critical for many fields such as energy conversion, electronics, manufacturing, and energy storage. Due to the substantial power density increase, thermal resistance at interfaces has recently become a bottleneck for thermal management of energy dense devices and systems, such as high-power electronics, LEDs, and data centers. However, it has been challenging to develop a high-performance thermal interface material (TIM) because it concurrently requires high thermal conductivity for minimizing thermal resistance and high compliance for accommodating the thermal stress derived from thermal expansion mismatch. By manufacturing and commercializing a novel high-performance nanostructured composite TIM, this PMFI project will enable large-scale thermal management applications in various industries, such as electronics, aerospace, and renewable energy, which can greatly facilitate carbon emission reduction and climate change mitigation for PA.