Vertically-aligned Zn2SnO4–Fe3O4 core-shell microsphere-based thermal interface material with high thermal conductivity

Abstract

In this study, we successfully fabricated vertically aligned Zn2SnO4 (ZTO)-Fe3O4 core-shell microsphere (MS)-based thermal interface material (TIM) formed by an external magnetic field. The thermal conductivity of the randomly distributed ZTO-Fe3O4 core-shell/PDMS-based TIMs was enhanced with increasing loading fraction of fillers and TIM with 25 vol % fillers 2.5 times effectively reduced GPU temperature compared to bare PDMS sample. Moreover, the vertically-aligned 25 vol% ZTO-Fe3O4 core-shell filler embedded TIM additionally reduced temperature by 5.1 % and 24.1 % compared to randomly dispersed ZTO-Fe3O4 MS TIMs and bare PDMS, respectively. Experimental results showed that the ZTO-Fe3O4 TIMs can be used as high thermal conductivity TIM filler, and vertically aligned core-shell filler can maximize thermal conductivity by forming an effective thermal path from bottom to top. The theoretical analysis results obtained using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.6 simulation corresponded well with experimental ones. Our suggested vertically aligned ZTO-Fe3O4 core-shell-based TIM can provide an effective heat dissipation path for advanced semiconductor devices with a wide range of applications.