Honeywell Announces New Thermal Management Materials for Portable Computing Devices

Honeywell Electronic Materials announced a new printable thermal management material designed to help manage the tremendous heat produced by increasingly powerful semiconductors in portable computing devices such as laptops and netbooks.

Honeywell develops thermal management solutions that transfer and dissipate heat, and the new material, Honeywell PCM45M-SP, builds on Electronic Materials’ existing line of thermal management materials. As semiconductors become more powerful and smaller, more heat is being generated in the confined spaces where semiconductors are packaged for end-use applications. This tremendous heat can damage the semiconductor or degrade its performance, and it can damage the device as well.

"Mobile computing devices such as laptops and netbooks are placing increased demands on thermal management materials to enable high performance and ensure a long lifespan," said Tim Chen, Packaging Leader for Honeywell Electronic Materials. "To meet that challenge, we have combined our industry leading phase-change chemistry with an innovative formulation specifically designed for these types of mobile devices."

In typical mobile computing applications, chip temperature rises steeply at start-up and remains high during operations. The PCM45M-SP is designed to meet these specific thermal management requirements, delivering reliable power cycling performance where other thermal materials would typically fail.

The PCM45M-SP can withstand more than 1,000 hours at 150°C without degradation and more than 1,000 temperature cycles. The application is not limited to heat sink design, and the material may be applied to a component, heat sink or thermal spreader in any shape built into the printing screen. Additionally, the enhanced stability of this new material minimizes or eliminates the need for pre-mixing, conserving time and resources.

The PCM45M-SP phase change thermal interface consists of a sophisticated thermally conductive material with optimum filler size distribution to achieve maximum packing density compared with conventional phase change materials. PCM45M-SP changes phase at 45°C to ensure maximum surface conformance.