Nanoscale thermal management

Problem: All electronic devices and circuitry generate excess heat and thus require thermal management to improve reliability and prevent premature failure. In micro- and nano-electronics, heat is often a limiting factor for smaller and more efficient components. Traditional heat sinks use copper, however its heat conductance, k=~400 Wm-1K-1, though among the highest in metals, is not sufficient to overcome the ever-increasing heat generated by modern microelectronics. Targeted technical solution: Graphene has the highest potential in thermal management. It is an excellent heat conductor at room temperature. Its thermal conductivity is the highest of any known material, k=~2000-4000 Wm-1K-1. Importantly, the production cost is lower than the one for traditional copper heat sinks. Electronics, which includes graphene-enabled thermal management, will greatly benefit from its ability to dissipate heat and optimize electronic function. Thus, graphene (and other 2D materials with exceptional thermal conductivity) holds an enormous potential for this kind of applications. Some key examples of commercial applications include: i) Cryorig has introduced its CPU graphene-enhanced cooling system on the heatsink for PCs. It is the smallest cooler for higher-end processors available today; ii) recently Huawei announced its Mate 20 X gaming and Mate P30 Pro mainstream smartphones, which adopted a graphene film cooling technology for heat management purposes. Since then, the patenting activity has picked up, despite limited academic activity in the area of thermal management. The relevant metrological approach is absent. Objective: to develop a method for quantitative measurements of thermal conductivity in 2D materials applicable to a range of scales and advance it towards NPL measurement service.