TWI807982B - Liquid alloy thermal paste and the method of fabrication the same - Google Patents

Abstract

A liquid alloy thermal paste comprises: a liquid alloy and a trace element, the liquid alloy and the trace element are stirred and reformed to a paste-like liquid alloy mixture that is viscous and does not flow easily, and the liquid alloy mixture is used as the liquid alloy thermal paste.

Description

Liquid alloy thermal paste and method for manufacturing liquid alloy thermal paste

The invention relates to a liquid alloy heat dissipation paste and a method for manufacturing the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste, in particular to a liquid alloy heat dissipation paste that is not easy to leak, easy to install and has high heat dissipation performance, and a method for manufacturing the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste.

Nowadays, a large number of electronic devices are used in human life. As processors or electronic components in electronic devices, huge heat will be generated during operation, which will cause damage to the processor or electronic components due to overheating, and shorten the service life of the processor or electronic components. In order to allow these processors or electronic components to operate for a long time and maintain their service life, the heat dissipation of the processors or electronic components has become a crucial issue.

Common heat dissipation methods, such as disposing heat dissipation paste and heat dissipation components above the heat source of the processor or electronic components, can improve the heat dissipation performance of the processor or electronic components by virtue of their easy heat conduction characteristics. Conventional heat dissipation pastes can be classified into non-liquid heat dissipation pastes and liquid heat dissipation pastes. While non-liquid thermal paste has the advantage of being easy to set up, it doesn't conduct heat well enough to effectively transfer heat from the processor or electronic components to the cooling element. On the other hand, although the liquid thermal paste has good thermal conductivity, it is difficult to evenly coat the surface of the processor or electronic components due to its liquid nature. In addition, the liquid heat dissipation paste is also prone to overflow from the surface of the processor or electronic components, causing a short circuit in the surrounding circuits.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a liquid alloy heat dissipation paste and a method for manufacturing the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste.

The technical means adopted by the present invention to solve the problems of the conventional technology is to provide a liquid alloy thermal paste, which includes: a liquid alloy, which includes a liquid metal and a plurality of solid metals, and the liquid metal and the plurality of solid metals are alloyed or eutectic by mixing the liquid metal and the plurality of solid metals; mixture, and the liquid alloy mixture is used as liquid alloy thermal grease.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a liquid alloy heat dissipation paste is provided, wherein the liquid metal system includes gallium, the solid metal system includes indium and tin, and the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste system includes 60 to 80 weight percent gallium, 15 to 25 weight percent indium, and 5-15 weight percent tin.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a liquid alloy thermal paste is provided, wherein the trace element is selected from group IIIA elements of boron, aluminum, gallium, and indium; group IVA elements of carbon, silicon, germanium, tin, and lead; group VA elements of nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth; and one or more elements of group VIA elements of selenium and tellurium.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a liquid alloy thermal paste is provided, which further includes a heat-conducting particle, and the heat-conducting particle is metal, metal oxide, metal nitride or carbon-based material.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a liquid alloy thermal paste is provided, wherein the metal is copper, zinc, aluminum or gallium, the metal oxide is copper oxide, zinc oxide or gallium oxide, the metal nitride is aluminum nitride or gallium nitride, and the carbon-based material is graphene, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, graphite, diamond or artificial diamond.

Another technical means adopted by the present invention to solve the problems of the prior art is to provide a method for manufacturing liquid alloy thermal paste, which includes: a mixing step, which is to mix a liquid metal and a plurality of A solid metal is mixed; an alloying step is to alloy or eutectic the liquid metal and a plurality of the solid metals to form a liquid alloy; a filtering step is to filter the liquid alloy to remove impurities; a modification step is to add a trace element to the filtered liquid alloy, and to form a viscous liquid alloy mixture in a paste form that is not easy to flow by stirring the liquid alloy and the trace element for modification; a dispersion step is to disperse the liquid alloy mixture. The metal particles in the liquid alloy are uniformly distributed; and a degassing step, degassing the dispersed liquid alloy mixture to remove the gas in the liquid alloy, and using the degassed liquid alloy mixture as a liquid alloy thermal paste.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for manufacturing a liquid alloy thermal paste is provided, wherein the mixing step is to mix 60 to 80 weight percent gallium, 15 to 25 weight percent indium and 5-15 weight percent tin, and the alloying step is to alloy or eutecticize the gallium, indium and tin.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for manufacturing a liquid alloy thermal paste is provided, wherein the trace element added in the modifying step is one or more elements selected from Group IIIA elements of boron, aluminum, gallium, and indium; Group IVA elements of carbon, silicon, germanium, tin, and lead; Group VA elements of nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth; and one or more elements of Group VIA elements of selenium and tellurium.

In one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing a liquid alloy thermal paste. After the modifying step and before the dispersion step, it further includes an adding step, which is to add a heat-conducting particle to the modified liquid alloy. The heat-conducting particle is metal, metal oxide, metal nitride or carbon-based material.

In one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing liquid alloy thermal paste, wherein the metal is copper, zinc, aluminum or gallium, the metal oxide is copper oxide, zinc oxide or gallium oxide, the metal nitride is aluminum nitride or gallium nitride, and the carbon-based material is graphene, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, graphite, diamond or artificial diamond.

Through the technical means adopted in the present invention, the liquid alloy thermal paste of the present invention is stable and difficult to flow, and has good adhesion, can be evenly coated on the surface of the processor or electronic components, has excellent heat dissipation performance, and can avoid overflow from the surface of the processor or electronic components, resulting in the short circuit of the surrounding circuits.

10: Liquid alloy thermal paste

20: Substrate

21: Electronic components

30: Radiator

40: cooling fins

S101: mixing step

S102: Alloying step

S103: filtering step

S104: modification step

S105: adding steps

S106: Dispersing step

S107: degassing step

[FIG. 1] is a schematic view showing disposing thermal paste and thermal components on electronic components according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[FIG. 2] is a schematic diagram showing disposing thermal paste and thermal components on electronic components according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[FIG. 3] is a flow chart showing the method of manufacturing the liquid alloy thermal paste according to the present invention.

[Fig. 4] is a line graph showing the heat dissipation performance of the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste according to the present invention.

[Fig. 5] is a line graph showing another heat dissipation performance of the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste according to the present invention.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on FIGS. 1 to 5 . This description is not intended to limit the implementation of the present invention, but is one of the examples of the present invention.

A liquid alloy thermal paste 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a liquid alloy and a trace element.

The liquid alloy includes a liquid metal and a plurality of solid metals, and the liquid metal and the plurality of solid metals are alloyed or eutectic by mixing the liquid metal and the plurality of solid metals.

In a liquid alloy thermal paste 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention, the liquid alloy mixture and the trace elements are stirred to modify to form a viscous liquid alloy mixture in a pasty state that is not easy to flow, and the liquid alloy mixture is used as the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of disposing heat dissipation paste and heat dissipation components on electronic components according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of disposing heat dissipation paste and heat dissipation components on electronic components according to another embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a liquid alloy thermal paste 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention is coated and located between the upper surface of the electronic component 21 disposed on the substrate 20 and the lower surface of the heat sink 30 as a heat dissipation element, and between the upper surface of the heat sink 30 and the lower surface of the heat dissipation fin 40 as another heat dissipation element.

In this embodiment, the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste 10 of the present invention functions as a thermal interface material (Thermal Interface Material, TIM) to perform heat dissipation.

According to the current technology, no matter how it is processed, the surface of the heat dissipation element will still have rough and uneven parts. Therefore, when the surfaces of two heat dissipation elements are in contact, it is impossible to form a complete contact without gaps. There will still be some air mixed in the gaps. The thermal conductivity of air is very small, which causes a relatively large contact thermal resistance, resulting in a decrease in heat dissipation performance.

The air gap can be filled by using thermal interface material (TIM), which can reduce contact thermal resistance and improve heat dissipation performance.

In detail, as shown in FIG. 1 , according to an embodiment of the present invention, the liquid alloy thermal paste 10 located between the upper surface of the electronic component 21 and the lower surface of the heat sink 30, as a so-called TIM 1, transfers heat energy generated by the electronic component 21 to the heat sink 30 during operation.

Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste 10 located between the upper surface of the heat sink 30 and the lower surface of the heat dissipation fin 40 as another heat dissipation element is generally called The TIM 2 transfers the heat transferred to the heat sink 30 to the heat dissipation fins 40 , and then dissipates the heat through the heat dissipation fins 40 .

Of course, the present invention is not limited to the arrangement shown in FIG. 1, and may also be shown in FIG. 2. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste 10 is coated and located between the upper surface of the electronic component 21 disposed on the substrate 20 and the lower surface of the heat dissipation fin 40 as a heat dissipation element.

In this embodiment, the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste 10 located between the upper surface of the electronic component 21 and the lower surface of the heat dissipation fin 40 as a heat dissipation element, as a so-called TIM 1.5, directly transfers the heat energy generated by the operation of the electronic component 21 to the heat dissipation fin 40 for heat dissipation.

With the liquid alloy thermal paste 10 of the present invention, as an excellent thermal interface material (Thermal Interface Material, TIM), a good heat dissipation channel is formed between the electronic component 21 and the heat sink 30 and between the heat sink 30 and the heat dissipation fins 40, and can effectively dissipate the heat generated by the electronic component 21 during operation.

Furthermore, the liquid alloy thermal paste 10 of the present invention is stable and difficult to flow, and has good adhesion, can be evenly coated on the surface of the processor or electronic components, and can avoid overflowing from the surface of the processor or electronic components, resulting in the short circuit of the surrounding circuits.

In a liquid alloy heat dissipation paste 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention, the liquid metal system includes gallium, the solid metal system includes indium and tin, and the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste system includes 60 to 80 weight percent gallium, 15 to 25 weight percent indium, and 5-15 weight percent tin.

In a liquid alloy thermal paste 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention, the trace element is one or more elements selected from group IIIA elements, group IVA elements, group VA elements and group VIA elements.

Examples of group III elements include boron (B), aluminum (Al), gallium (Ga), and indium (In). Examples of group IV elements include carbon (C), silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), tin (Sn), and lead (Pb). Examples of group V elements include nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), and bismuth (Bi). Selenium (Se) and tellurium (Te) etc. are mentioned as a group VI element.

A liquid alloy thermal paste 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention further includes a thermally conductive particle, and the thermally conductive particle is metal, metal oxide, metal nitride or carbon-based material.

As this metal, copper, zinc, aluminum, or gallium may be mentioned. As the metal oxide, copper oxide, zinc oxide, or gallium oxide may, for example, be mentioned. Examples of the metal nitride include aluminum nitride and gallium nitride. Examples of the carbon-based material include graphene, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, graphite, diamond, and artificial diamond.

The manufacturing method of the liquid alloy thermal paste according to the present invention will be described below according to FIG. 3 . Fig. 3 is a flow chart showing a method of manufacturing liquid alloy thermal paste according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the manufacturing method of liquid alloy thermal paste according to the present invention includes: a mixing step S101, an alloying step S102, a filtering step S103, a modifying step S104, a dispersion step S106 and a degassing step S107.

According to the manufacturing method of the liquid alloy thermal paste of the present invention, the mixing step S101 is to mix a liquid metal and a plurality of solid metals.

In detail, the mixing step S101 is to mix gallium, indium and tin. For example, 60 to 80 weight percent of gallium, 15 to 25 weight percent of indium and 5 to 15 weight percent of tin are used for mixing while controlling the temperature at 40°C to 100°C.

Then enter the alloying step S102, and the liquid metal and the plurality of solid metals are alloyed or eutectic to form a liquid alloy.

Then enter the filtering step S103. In the filtering step S103, the liquid alloy is filtered to remove impurities.

Then enter the modifying step S104. In the modifying step S104, a trace element is added to the filtered liquid alloy, and the liquid alloy and the trace element are stirred to modify to form a viscous liquid alloy mixture in a paste state that is not easy to flow.

Specifically, 0.01 to 0.5 weight percent of trace elements can be added to the filtered liquid alloy. The trace elements added in the modifying step S104 are selected from Group IIIA elements of boron, aluminum, gallium, and indium; Group IVA elements of carbon, silicon, germanium, tin, and lead; Group VA elements of nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth; and one or more elements of Group VIA elements of selenium and tellurium.

Then proceed to the dispersing step S106. In the dispersing step S106, the liquid alloy mixture is dispersed so that the metal particles in the liquid alloy are evenly distributed.

As a method for dispersing the liquid alloy mixture, for example, devices such as a Hydrodynamic shear-based mixer, a Kneader, a Stirred ball mill, a Roller mill, a Disc mill, or an Ultrasonic homogenizer can be used to distribute and disperse the metal particles in the liquid alloy mixture evenly.

Then enter the degassing step S107. In the degassing step S107, the dispersed liquid alloy mixture is degassed to remove the gas in the liquid alloy, and the degassed liquid alloy mixture is used as liquid alloy thermal paste.

As a method for degassing the liquid alloy mixture, for example, a centrifugal degassing mixer (Planetary centrifugal degassing mixer), a vacuum centrifugal degassing mixer (Vacuum Planetary centrifugal degassing mixer), a double planetary agitational degassing mixer (Double Planetary agitational degassing mixer), a double planetary vacuum agitational degassing mixer (Vacuum Double Planetary agitational degassing mixer) can be used. mixer) or vacuum degassing mixer (Vacuum degassing mixer) and other devices to degas the dispersed liquid alloy mixture and remove the gas in the liquid alloy.

Moreover, the present invention is not limited thereto. As shown in FIG. 3 , in the method for manufacturing liquid alloy thermal paste according to the present invention, after the modification step S104 and before the dispersion step S106, an adding step S105 may be further included, which is to add a heat-conducting particle to the modified liquid alloy, and the heat-conducting particle is metal, metal oxide, metal nitride or carbon-based material. Among them, the metals are copper, zinc, Aluminum or gallium, the metal oxide is copper oxide, zinc oxide or gallium oxide, the metal nitride is aluminum nitride or gallium nitride, and the carbon-based material is graphene, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, graphite, diamond or artificial diamond.

Fig. 4 is a line graph showing the heat dissipation performance of the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste according to the present invention. Fig. 5 is a line graph showing another heat dissipation performance of the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste according to the present invention. In Figures 4 and 5, the vertical axis is the thermal resistance coefficient, and the horizontal axis is the pressure applied to the thermal paste.

The smaller the thermal resistance coefficient, the better the heat dissipation performance. When the pressure applied to the heat dissipation paste is increased, the heat conduction components in the heat dissipation paste are denser, the efficiency of heat conduction is improved, the thermal resistance coefficient is reduced, and the heat dissipation performance is better. However, when the pressure applied to the thermal paste is greater than 20PSI, the thermal resistivity of the thermal paste will not change significantly. The thermal resistance coefficient of conventional metal thermal pastes can be as low as about 0.025° C. cm ² /W.

In Fig. 4, GLL, GLP++, GLP+, GLP-M, GLP, and GLP-L are all liquid alloy heat dissipation pastes manufactured according to the method for manufacturing liquid alloy heat dissipation pastes of the present invention. It can be seen from FIG. 4 that all the liquid alloy heat dissipation pastes according to the present invention have stable heat dissipation performance. Furthermore, GLP+ has the same heat dissipation performance as the conventional metal heat dissipation paste, while GLL and GLP++ have better heat dissipation performance than the conventional metal heat dissipation paste.

In Fig. 5, GLP+-1, GLP+-2 and GLP+-3 are all liquid alloy heat dissipation pastes manufactured according to the manufacturing method of liquid alloy heat dissipation paste of the present invention. It can be seen from FIG. 5 that the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste according to the present invention has stable heat dissipation performance, and compared with the conventional metal heat dissipation paste, it has the same or even better heat dissipation performance.

Through the technical means adopted in the present invention, the liquid alloy heat dissipation paste 10 of the present invention is stable and difficult to flow, and has good adhesion, can be evenly coated on the surface of the processor or electronic components, has excellent heat dissipation performance, and can avoid overflow from the surface of the processor or electronic components, resulting in the short circuit of the surrounding circuits. Furthermore, through the manufacturing method of the liquid alloy thermal paste of the present invention The method can produce a liquid alloy thermal paste that is stable in shape, not easy to flow, has good adhesion, excellent heat dissipation performance, and can avoid overflowing from the surface of the processor or electronic components, causing short circuit problems in the surrounding circuits.

The above descriptions and descriptions are only descriptions of the preferred embodiments of the present invention. Those who have common knowledge of this technology can make other modifications according to the scope of the patent application defined below and the above descriptions. However, these modifications should still be the spirit of the present invention and within the scope of rights of the present invention.

10: Liquid alloy thermal paste

20: Substrate

21: Electronic components

30: Radiator

40: cooling fins

Claims (6)

A liquid alloy heat sink, which contains: a liquid alloy, including a liquid metal and a plural solid metal. The liquid metal system includes a 60 to 80 percentage percentage of 镓. The solid metal system includes a 15 to 25 percentage tin with a weight percentage of 5 to 15 percentage. The metal and plurals of the solid metal can reach alloy or crystallize; and a trace element, its weight percentage is 0.01 to 0.5 percentage percentage. This trace element is selected from the IIIA elements of boron, aluminum, 镓, and 铟; carbon, silicon, tin, tin, and lead; Elements; and one or more elements in the elements of selenium and tadpoles; among them, stirred the liquid alloy and the trace element to form a liquid alloy mixture that is sticky and not easy to flow, and the liquid alloy mixture is used as a liquid alloy heat sink. The liquid alloy heat dissipation paste as described in claim 1 further includes a heat conduction particle, and the heat conduction particle is metal, metal oxide, metal nitride or carbon-based material. Liquid alloy thermal paste as described in Claim 2, wherein the metal is copper, zinc, aluminum or gallium, the metal oxide is copper oxide, zinc oxide or gallium oxide, the metal nitride is aluminum nitride or gallium nitride, and the carbon-based material is graphene, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, graphite, diamond or artificial diamond. A method for manufacturing a liquid alloy thermal paste, comprising: a mixing step of mixing a liquid metal and a plurality of solid metals, the liquid metal comprising 60 to 80 weight percent of gallium, the solid metal comprising 15 to 25 weight percent of indium and 5-15 weight percent of tin; an alloying step of alloying or eutecticizing the liquid metal and the plurality of solid metals to form a liquid alloy; A filtering step is to filter the liquid alloy to remove impurities; a modification step is to add 0.01 to 0.5 weight percent of a trace element to the filtered liquid alloy, the trace element is selected from group IIIA elements of boron, aluminum, gallium and indium; group IVA elements of carbon, silicon, germanium, tin and lead; group VA elements of nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony and bismuth; Stirring the trace elements for modification to form a viscous and difficult-to-flow liquid alloy mixture in a pasty state; a dispersing step, dispersing the liquid alloy mixture so that the metal particles in the liquid alloy are evenly distributed; and a degassing step, degassing the dispersed liquid alloy mixture to remove the gas in the liquid alloy, and using the degassed liquid alloy mixture as a liquid alloy thermal paste. The manufacturing method of the liquid alloy thermal paste as described in claim 4 further includes an adding step after the modification step and before the dispersion step, which is to add a heat-conducting particle to the modified liquid alloy, and the heat-conducting particle is a metal, metal oxide, metal nitride or carbon-based material. The manufacturing method of liquid alloy thermal paste as described in Claim 5, wherein the metal is copper, zinc, aluminum or gallium, the metal oxide is copper oxide, zinc oxide or gallium oxide, the metal nitride is aluminum nitride or gallium nitride, and the carbon-based material is graphene, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, graphite, diamond or artificial diamond.

Images