Progress in thermal characterisation methods and thermal interface technology within the “Nanopack” project

As the demand for new thermal technologies and materials has been increasing over the years to provide thermal solutions to the next generation of power electronics, microprocessors and high-power optical systems also thermal characterisation methods have to keep up with the pace of this development with respect to resolution and accuracy. Within the EU-funded project “Nanopack” we have developed both bulk and interface technologies to reduce thermal resistance using Ag-based materials and low-T and low-p processes to render them eligible for the electronics industry. New processes to generate nano-enhanced surface structures as well as thermo-compression bonding are examined within this paper. Along with these processes especially designed test stands are described which are able to extract the effects achieved by the technological advances.