TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] This invention relates to standing metallic nanostructures for thermal interface material applications. More particularly, the invention relates to the use of assembly of high-density metal nano-cylinders vertically aligned on a metal substrate, on interfacing sides, with a phase change material for achieving high thermal conduction between two substrates namely interface heat source and cooling component.
BACKGROUND ART
[0002] Generally, as per Fourier's law of conduction, the heat generated on an integrated heat spreader (IHS) by a working CPU in a computing device such as a laptop, is transferred to the heat sink (cooling component), and through cooling mechanisms installed remove the heat away from heat sink. The two surfaces in this operation are metallic and do not have a perfectly smooth surface. The air, being an insulator, trapped between these irregular surface formations slows down the conduction of heat. Hence, thermal interface material (TIM) with high thermal conductivity is used for the purpose by manufacturers of these devices.
[0003] It is well known that the miniaturization of electronic devices and components has introduced a bigger problem of heat dissipation from electronic devices and has become a limiting factor in continued efficient performance and reliability. It is of the utmost importance to remove the heat efficiently to keep these devices working under normal conditions.
[0004] When two surfaces, say metal plates, are mated to produce surface contact, voids and gaps can be formed between the two surfaces. These voids are filled with air and that increases the thermal resistance and slows down the transfer of heat between surfaces.
[0005] The thermal interface material is used to fill up the voids between two surfaces and that also provides a conduit for the proper conduction of heat between these.
[0006] The thermal interface materials come in different forms such as grease or gel, or PCM (here in use) with varying degrees of effectiveness and characteristics. For optimum and efficient working a thermal interface material has two requirements, namely good thermal conductivity and mechanically compliant.
[0007] The thermal interface material loses its effectiveness over a period of time. The gel, if used, gets dried up, and this leads to the creation of thermal conduction blockades that in turn lead to the accumulation of heat between the surfaces, which ultimately is detrimental to the performance of the device , say a CPU in a computational machine.
[0008] The thermal interface material in form of gel may also be infused with nano particles in free form to enhance the effectiveness of thermal conduction. However, it is noticed that adding a high concentration of nano particles at times results in increased viscosity of TIM, rendering it highly prone to smudging out of the IHS.
[0009] In thermal expansions, there are pump-out issues noted with many TIMs. This results in the application of TIM turning ineffective after a number of thermal cycles in the lifecycle of the product.
[0010] PCMs find their major use in the energy-storing application. These materials in independent form may have very low thermal conductivity, but may slightly change in a different phase, say liquid or hard form.
[0011] Owing to low thermal conductivity and varying viscosity, PCM as such is not used as a thermal interface material. It is required that PCM be integrated with good conductor of heat and be made as a composite material.
[0012] To have a long-lasting solution that is effective as a thermal interface material one has to look beyond gels and greases. Consequently, there is a great need for developing a thermal interface material that addresses the issues with the existing solutions and provides a better alternative.
[0013] The limited heat conduction, reliability, and longevity of commercially available thermal interface material is posing a limitation in development of advanced electronic components. This call for the development of a composite thermal interface material that can address the current limitations.
[0014] It is also known that leakage current from semiconductors is directly proportional to accumulated heat. Longer it takes to conduct heat away from IHS more is the accumulation of heat and power getting converted into heat. This makes electronic devices with poor thermal interface material susceptible to under-utilization, in-efficiency and higher power consumptions.
[0015] Accordingly, it would be an advance in the art to provide a thermal interface material built using solid metallic structures, having high thermal conductivity, strength and a viscous material that provides for filling the air gaps, increases the effective heat transfer and also have a reduced boundary level thermal resistance.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
[0016] The principal object of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art by a new metallic nano-structure assembly having vertically aligned coactive nano-cylinders on the interfacing/exposed sides of a conductive substrate created by synthesis process, and embedded in a phase change material. This will solve the in-effective thermal conduction, longevity, smudging, drying, and pump-out issues and other problems as introduced by current art, and shall also make electronic devices more power efficient.
[0017] An object of the present invention is to provide a tool in form of installable software to activate the manufactured hardware to start functioning, where the ambient condition does not permit phase change material to change phase at the installation instance.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0018] The present invention relates to thermal interface material produced with the use of vertical standing metal nanostructures and a phase change material.
[0019] In one embodiment, the nanostructure assembly is completely embedded within a phase change material.
[0020] In one embodiment, the nanostructure assembly is encapsulated and contained inside a phase change material.
[0021] In one embodiment, the assembly is partially submerged in a phase change material leaving tips of the metal nano cylinders exposed.
[0022] In one embodiment, a software program that increases the threshold temperature of the heat-producing component by overloading it for a short duration, is used to trigger the phase change of the phase change material used.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0023] While the present invention is described herein by way of example using embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments of drawing or drawings described and are not intended to represent the scale of the various components. Further, some components that may form a part of the invention may not be illustrated in certain figures, for ease of illustration, and such omissions do not limit the embodiments outlined in any way. It should be understood that the drawings and the detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claim.
[0024] As used throughout this description, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e. meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense, (i.e. meaning must). Further, the words "a" or "an" mean "at least one" and the word "plurality" means "one or more" unless otherwise mentioned. Furthermore, the terminology and phraseology used herein are solely used for descriptive purposes and should not be construed as limiting in scope. Language such as "including," "comprising," "having," "containing," or "involving," and variations thereof, is intended to be broad and encompass the subject matter listed thereafter, equivalents, and additional subject matter not recited, and is not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers, or steps. Likewise, the term "comprising" is considered synonymous with the terms "including" or "containing" for applicable legal purposes. Any discussion of documents acts, materials, devices, articles, and the like are included in the specification solely to provide a context for the present invention. It is not suggested or represented that any or all these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention.
[0025] In this disclosure, whenever a composition or an element or a group of elements is preceded with the transitional phrase “comprising”, it is understood that we also contemplate the same composition, element, or group of elements with transitional phrases “consisting of”, “consisting”, “selected from the group of consisting of, “including”, or “is” preceding the recitation of the composition, element or group of elements and vice versa.
[0026] The present invention is described hereinafter by various embodiments concerning the accompanying drawings, wherein reference numerals used in the accompanying drawing correspond to the like elements throughout the description. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiment set forth herein. Rather, the embodiment is provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the following detailed description, numeric values and ranges are provided for various aspects of the implementations described. These values and ranges are to be treated as examples only and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims. In addition, several materials are identified as suitable for various facets of the implementations. These materials are to be treated as exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
[0027] The present invention relates to Coactive metal nano-structure assembly using Phase Change Material (PCM) for use as thermal interface material, to be known as Chakarvarti Nano Assembly
[0028] This invention is useful for application in electronic and computing devices. This is a product on which application it shall improve the thermal conduction from heating surfaces to external heat sinks. This shall increase the power efficiency, longevity, and performance of electronic devices. It’s application needs expert technicians to apply.
[0029] From herein afterwards, the Coactive metal nano-structure assembly using Phase Change Material (PCM) for use as thermal interface material, to be known as Chakarvarti Nano Assembly is referred to as CNA. Referring now to figure 1, the CNA includes interfacing sided grown nanostructures applied with PCM compound.
[0030] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the metal substrate with metal nanostructures synthesized on interfacing sides of the substrate is embedded with PCM compound on synthesized sides.
[0031] It is applied between the IHS and Heat Sink surfaces.
[0032] Various modifications to these embodiments are apparent to those skilled in the art from the description and the accompanying drawings. The principles associated with the various embodiments described herein may be applied to other embodiments. Therefore, the description is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown along with the accompanying drawings but is to be providing the broadest scope consistent with the principles and the novel and inventive features disclosed or suggested herein. Accordingly, the invention is anticipated to hold on to all other such alternatives, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the present invention and appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0033] In order to understand that how the above-recited features of the present invention can be put in actual use, a more particular description of the invention is briefly summarized below. It is to be noted, that the appended drawings illustrate only specific substrates of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of the scope of the invention.
[0034] These and other features, benefits, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent by reference to the following text figure, with like reference numbers referring to like structures across the views, wherein:

We Claim

1. An assembly [0001] when applied between two metal surfaces, where one is heat source metal surface and other is metal cooling surface, increases the conduction of heat between these two surfaces, comprising:
A plurality of vertically aligned high density metal nano–cylindrical structures synthesized and distributed on the interfacing surfaces of a metal substrate ([0001])
A plurality of vertically aligned high density metal nano–cylindrical structures synthesized and distributed on the interfacing surfaces of a metal substrate, with all space between these nano-cylindrical structures filled with a PCM compound. ([0001])
A plurality of vertically aligned high density metal nano–cylindrical structures synthesized and distributed on the interfacing surfaces of a metal substrate, with all space between these nano-cylindrical structures filled with a PCM compound till the height of nano-cylinders. ([00019])
A plurality of vertically aligned high density metal nano–cylindrical structures synthesized and distributed on the interfacing surfaces of a metal substrate, with all space between these nano-cylindrical structures filled with a PCM compound just below the height of nano-cylinders. ([00021])
A plurality of vertically aligned high density metal nano–cylindrical structures synthesized and distributed on the interfacing surfaces of a metal substrate, with all space between these nano-cylindrical structures filled with a PCM compound just above the height of nano-cylinders. ([00022])
The assembly 0001 as claimed in claim 1, wherein the assembly is installed between two metal surfaces, where one is source of heat, and other is cooling surface, the nano-cylinders on interfacing surfaces become coactive in conduction of heat, resulting in faster removal of heat from source of heat and avoid accumulation of heat.

2. The assembly 0001 as claimed in claim 1, wherein the assembly is installed between two metal surfaces, where one is source of heat, and other is cooling surface, the nano-cylinders on interfacing surfaces become coactive in conduction of heat, resulting in faster removal of heat from source of heat and avoid accumulation of heat. The PCM absorbs the extra heat which is further conducted by metal nano-cylinder to the cooler side of the assembly.
3. A software program that increases the threshold temperature of the heat-producing component by overloading it for a short duration, is used to trigger the phase change of the phase change material used in claim 1.