Trinity College Dublin

<p><strong>Overview:</strong> As Ireland’s university on the world stage, Trinity is recognised for academic excellence and a transformative student experience. The historic campus is located in the heart of Dublin city centre at the meeting place of the retail and cultural districts. With a tradition of scholarship spanning more than four centuries, Trinity is home to talented and inquiring minds, a liberal education, and research conducted at the frontiers of disciplines.</p>
<p><strong>Research:</strong> Trinity’s position as one of the world’s leading universities is defined by our research, scholarship, and capacity to address issues of global, societal and economic importance. Our strength lies in the breadth and excellence of our expertise; from individual-scholars and thought-leaders, to large multidisciplinary teams, each delivering research of national and global importance.</p>
<p>Trinity’s research themes address issues of immediate and long-term concern for society and offer opportunities for future economic development. They are supported by a set of research institutes that provide the infrastructure that is required to support multi-disciplinary research as well as partner engagement.</p>
<p><strong>Industry Partnerships:</strong> Trinity is committed to supporting industry — from SMEs to MNCs, from short term projects to long term on-going collaborative projects. In a national or international context, we work collaboratively with industry stakeholders and agencies to share infrastructure and expertise, tackle industry relevant research challenges, problems, or address grand challenges.</p>


<h1 id="background">Background</h1>
<p>Heat spreaders are crucial components that absorb heat from miniature semiconductor dies and spread it to larger areas to facilitate effective heat removal. Cooling relies on an efficient transfer of heat from the component or device. Important properties of any heat spreader material or structure are the thermal conductivity (TC) and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). ​</p>
<p>Due to the large CTE mismatch between the heat spreader material and the semiconductor die, a thick layer of thermal grease (TIM1) must be applied between the semiconductor and the heat spreader to absorb the shear caused by differential thermal expansion. ​</p>
<p>This TIM1 layer results in a significant additional thermal resistance and itself can suffer from long term reliability issues due to the operational cycles and CTE mismatching causing ‘pump-out’ of the grease</p>
<h1 id="technology-overview">Technology Overview</h1>
<p>This technology describes thermal structures on semiconductors that exhibit a combination of high TC and low CTE.​ Cold Spray (additive manufacturing) allows for the production of high performance heat spreaders with​:</p>
<ul>
<li>Tailored characteristics ​</li>
<li>Different materials or combination of materials such as composites or metal-composites</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.in-part.com/figures/TVoDOESQRJvZa4i9Ze36_cu-diamond.png" alt="Figure 1" />Further Details:</p>
<ul>
<li>R.J. MacNamara, T.L. Lupton, R. Lupoi, A.J. Robinson, Enhanced Nucleate Pool Boiling on Copper-Diamond Textured Surfaces, Applied Thermal Engineering, 162, 2019, p114145 Journal Article, 2019 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114145">DOI</a></li>
<li>Lupoi, T. Lupton, R. Jenkins, A.J. Robinson, G.E. O’Donnell, Direct manufacturing of diamond composite coatings onto silicon wafers and heat transfer performance, Journal Article, 2018 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2018.04.092">DOI</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="-stage-of-development-"><strong>Stage of Development</strong></h3>
<p>Cu-Diamond matrix technology demonstrators have been fabricated with TC~600W/(mK).</p>
<h1 id="benefits">Benefits</h1>
<ul>
<li>Copper-diamond matrixes formed by cold spraying are highly thermally conductive and have a low CTE, making them extremely suitable for thermal applications such as in heat spreaders. ​</li>
<li>Very low (potentially zero) thermal resistance at the interface between materials - and that has a 2D boiling surface on the uttermost layer.​</li>
<li>Removes the need for TIM1. Can be deposited directly on substrate.​</li>
<li>All of the above, in one single processing step​</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="applications">Applications</h1>
<p>Electronics, cooling, consumer electronics, data centre cooling.</p>
<h1 id="opportunity">Opportunity</h1>
<ul>
<li>Available to licence</li>
<li>Research collaboration</li>
</ul>
