Preparation of diamond/Cu microchannel heat sink by chemical vapor deposition

A Ti interlayer with thickness about 300 nm was sputtered on Cu microchannels, followed by an ultrasonic seeding with nanodiamond powders. Adherent diamond film with crystalline grains close to thermal equilibrium shape was tightly deposited by hot-filament chemical vapor deposition(HF-CVD). The nucleation and growth of diamond were investigated with micro-Raman spectroscope and field emission scanning electron microscope(FE-SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray detector(EDX). Results show that the nucleation density is found to be up to 1010 cm-2. The enhancement of the nucleation kinetics can be attributed to the nanometer rough Ti interlayer surface. An improved absorption of nanodiamond particles is found, which act as starting points for the diamond nucleation during HF-CVD process. Furthermore, finite element simulation was conducted to understand the thermal management properties of prepared diamond/Cu microchannel heat sink.