Characterization and investigation of performance of Sn–Bi alloy used as a thermal interface material

The proliferation of electronic technology has resulted in the miniaturization of electronic devices while simultaneously leading to a huge increase in the power density of gadgets. Due to this, the devices need to have better heat dissipation system to provide a high level of performance. Additionally, the compactness and performance characteristics of high speed and high power electronic components require efficient heat dissipation for the development of electronic equipment with high reliability. One of the most important issues in meeting the aforementioned difficulty is thermal control. The Thermal Interface Material, also known as TIM, is an important component in the process of thermal regulation. In comparison to traditional thermal interface materials (TIMs) like thermal grease, thermal gel, adhesive and solder, liquid metal (LM) TIMs offer a number of benefits due to their fundamentally high thermal conductivities, flexibility, and low melting points. These characteristics make LM TIMs ideal for use in thermal management applications. In the study, Low melting alloy (LMA) Sn60Bi40 is utilized as a filler material at the interfacial region between copper substrates in order to improve heat transfer performance. In this work, thermal contact resistance and temperature distribution of TIM are explored experimentally. Additionally, the characterization of Sn–40Bi using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis were carried out. The paper also reports the variation of thermal contact resistance (TCR) that occurs in response to heat flow, temperature distribution at the interfaces, and thickness.