3D printable phase change based thermal interface material with lower total thermal resistance at operating temperature

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) play a crucial role in addressing the heat dissipation challenges of electronic components, which needing high thermal conductivity and low thermal resistance to effectively improve heat transfer between chip and heat sink. This work focuses on the design of a 3D printable phase change based TIMs, which can be integrated with 3D printing technology to provide shapes suitable for quickly filling the gap between the chip and the heat sink in actual automated production. The optimized sample exhibits a total thermal resistance of 0.0012 m2K/W at operating temperature, with a through-plane thermal conductivity of 0.48 W/mK and an in-plane thermal conductivity of 1.24 W/mK. In practical thermal management, the resulting samples demonstrated a temperature reduction of 22 degrees C comparison with commercial TIM, highlighting its superior heat dissipation capability.