Silicone-based Thermal Pads

Silicone-based thermal pads are becoming an industry standard for thermal management solutions for their durability to withstand high temperatures up to 200°C. AOK offers a wide variety of products with their thermal conductivity from 1.0 W/m*K up to 5.0 W/m*K. Since some may be concerned with the use of silicone, outgas levels are extremely low. They come with the options of two sides self-tacky and one side self-tacky. Thickness is flexible ranging from 0.5mm and up.

Thermal Interface Impedance

Thermal impedance is the measure of a material's ability to conduct heat. In addition, thermal impedance describes a material's ability to conform to irregular surfaces and minimize contact resistance. These gap filler pads help eliminate air gaps between components and the heat-sink while conforming to the curvature and warp of matching surfaces. They are soft and compressible to the different heights of multiple components and remain stressfree with outstanding mechanical shock absorption.

Silicone Thermal Pad provides:

• Elimination of air gaps to reduce thermal resistance
• High conformability to reduce interfacial resistance
• Low-stress vibration dampening
• Compatible with automated dispensing equipment

High Voltage Breakdown Characteristics

When using silicone thermal pads to electrically isolate a component from a metal heat sink or chassis, the critical material property for the pad is its dielectric strength. Dielectric strength is a measure of how well a material can prevent the voltage on the component case from arcing through the material and allowing an electrical short circuit between the component and the metal mounting surface. This property is commonly presented as the voltage breakdown shown in the Typical Properties Table and is determined by electrical testing of multiple flat sheet samples in accordance with the test procedures detailed in ASTM D149. The higher the value of voltage breakdown is, the better the material is at withstanding applied voltages.

The dielectric strength of a material can also be affected by many external factors including: insulator thickness, area of the contact surfaces, temperature, humidity, mechanical stress applied to the insulator, the presence of partial discharge, etc. Contact AOK Applications Engineering for details of test methods and assistance with the electrical requirements of your specific application.

The Advantages of Silicone-based Thermal Pads

Silicone-based CPU thermal pad do offer some attractive features over compounds: namely, that they are easy to use, quick and neat. On the downside, if you want to call it that, they are one-shot solutions only. You MUST replace the thermal pad if you ever remove the heatsink from its mounted position, because the heat of the operating CPU would have caused the thermal pad to conform to your die top. Once you move the heat sink to replace the CPU or just to look at it for fun, there will be air gaps between the surfaces if you reuse the thermal pad. If you dismount the heatsink, replace the thermal pad. And of course, just as thermal compound can not be used too much, Thermal pads cannot be used more than two, since stacking two or three pads between CPU and heat sink might well be enough to kill your CPU.

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