Heat sink materials with tailored properties for thermal management

This paper summarizes a part of the research work done at ARC seibersdorf research during the past years related to the development of heat sink materials with tailored thermophysical properties. By using copper as a matrix material in combination with reinforcements with a low coefficient of thermal expansion a broad range of material properties can be achieved. The influence of processing conditions, type of the reinforcement as well as the variation of the volume content of the reinforcement allows tailoring the properties. Materials with such properties are of interest for use as a heat sink material. Of course there are problems to solve, especially if high thermally conductive reinforcements are used. These problems will be addressed and possible solutions will be explained.