Thermal Property Measurements

Thermal conductivity is a defining material property for critical industrial processes and applications, including additive manufacturing, energy conversion and management, electronics, building and construction, insulation and heat exchange, automotive and transportation, safety and protection, food processing, and aerospace. In the semiconductor industry, thermal conductivity governs thermal management, performance, and reliability in processors and wide bandgap power electronics. The thermal properties of materials and interfaces in these microelectronic devices are not fully or easily characterized, especially at device length scales wherein the properties can differ significantly from literature values. This project will improve thermal property measurements for multilayer semiconductor materials and generate reliable data that feeds into thermal simulations of integrated chips and power electronics. Currently, industry relies on imprecise or assumed input thermal properties for their simulation models. Improved thermal property measurements, reference material standards, and validated data will enhance the ability of the semiconductor industry to improve thermal management in microelectronics packaging, leading to fewer thermal failures, increased functionality, and longer operational lifetimes for cell phones, computers, communication chips, and power converter/amplification chips.

Our Goals:

• Thermal Property Standards: Develop thermal conductivity reference standards that span the materials and property value ranges relevant to the semiconductor industry, interlaboratory comparison studies of thermal measurements, and instrumentation/measurement best practices guidelines
• Instrumentation: Build a  suite of metrology tools to evaluate, improve, and refine thermal property measurement methods, protocols, and instrumentation
• Data: Provide on-demand, impartial, and reliable thermal property measurements for industry and CHIPS projects
• Support commercialization of advanced thermal measurement methods by working with existing vendors to customize and develop new thermal measurement instrumentation and techniques
• Provide Independent Verification & Validation measurements for critical Interagency Programs

CHIPS Project: Thermoreflectance Thermal Property Measurements for Heterogeneously Integrated Materials and Power Electronics