Thermal management is becoming increasingly important due to the limitations of thermal Physical law and the characteristics of thermal failure mechanisms of products. In modern electronic systems, due to the limitations of the efficiency of electronic devices themselves, nearly 80% of the electrical power dissipation of input electronic devices will become waste heat. The research results of the US Air Force Avionics Integrated Research Project indicate that 55% of device failures are caused by temperature factors. Through thermal management, it is ensured that high-power systems or equipment effectively control and manage the heat generated, ensuring that system equipment operates at an acceptable temperature level, ultimately ensuring the reliability, performance, and lifespan of the system.
The heat generated by the internal operation of electronic products is mainly transmitted to the outside through homogenization (horizontal transfer) and thermal conduction (vertical transfer). Homogenization refers to the automatic flow of heat from the high-temperature area to the low-temperature area until the temperature of the entire object reaches a uniform state; When two objects with different temperatures come into contact, the high-temperature object will transfer heat to the low-temperature object until the two temperatures reach equilibrium. The average heat mainly focuses on the heat distribution inside an object, while heat conduction focuses more on the heat transfer between objects.
Thermal conductive materials mainly improve the thermal conductivity and soaking efficiency in heat conduction. The uniform thermal conductivity of components along both directions of their material surface is usually limited, so it is necessary to use materials with high thermal conductivity in the horizontal direction to diffuse local high temperatures to the surrounding areas. However, between different components, there are uneven gaps in the direct contact between interfaces, which will produce thermal resistance (the thermal conductivity of air is very low). Therefore, thermal conductive interface materials need to be used to fill the gaps, so that heat can be transmitted faster between different interfaces.
There are various types of thermal conductive materials, and different thermal conductive materials have different characteristics and application scenarios. At present, the widely used thermal conductive materials include synthetic graphite materials, soaking plates (VC), thermal conductive interstitial materials, thermal conductive gel, thermal conductive silicone grease, phase change materials, etc. Among them, synthetic graphite is mainly used for soaking; Thermal conductive interstitial materials, thermal conductive gel, thermal conductive silicone grease and phase change materials are mainly used to improve thermal conductivity; VC can simultaneously perform both heating and thermal conductivity functions.
The thermal conductive material industry has high technical and supplier certification barriers. Due to the fact that the workspace of thermal conductive materials is mainly concentrated in uneven gaps and requires a certain degree of plasticity and softness, the raw materials involved in the upstream are mainly concentrated in polymer resins, silicone blocks, metal materials, and fabrics. Downstream, thermal conductive materials usually need to be combined with some devices to form thermal conductive devices through secondary development and ultimately applied in fields such as consumer batteries, communication base stations, and power batteries. Due to the low cost proportion of thermal conductive materials in the terminal, but their role is very important, the supplier has good performance stability and stable profitability.