Momentive’s thermal gap fillers perform well during hot vibration testing

Sponsored by Momentive Performance Materials

With the onset of ever-shrinking electronic components and systems with
more functionality and power in the automotive industry, the demand for thermal
management materials, such as gap fillers, have rapidly increased over the past
several years. Together,
with the continuing trend of reducing device dimensions, this has led to a dramatic
increase in thermal issues within electronic circuits.

Momentive has been supplying thermal gap fillers to the automotive industry for more than a decade and is continually testing the effectiveness of thermal management materials in automotive applications. Momentive recently conducted a study, based on a major United States OEM test standard, to gauge the ability of its thermal gap fillers to remain where they are applied; as well as to help dissipate heat from electronic components in the high heat and extreme vibration conditions found in automobiles.

SilCool™ Thermal Gap Fillers vs. Pre-cured Gels

Momentive’s SilCool™ thermal gap
fillers are thixotropic thermally conductive
silicone materials that are used to dissipate heat from electronic devices. The
soft nature of these materials enables stress relief during thermal cycling and
vibration.

Silicone pre-cured gels are
single-component tacky, highly conformable gels. They are known to provide good
thermal stability and reliable performance. They are generally used for filling
variable gaps between multiple components.

The test

The goal of the test was to evaluate select gap fillers and a pre-cured
gel for their ability to withstand random vibrations at high and low
temperatures.

Preparing the silicone for
testing

Three different Momentive thermal gap fillers, including SilCool™ TIA225GF, SilCool™ TIA241GF and SilCool™ TIA285GF thermal gap fillers, as well as one pre-cured gel from a competitor were used in this test.

Momentive prepared the liquid dispensed gap fillers by applying different
thicknesses, including 0.3 mm, 0.6 mm, 1 mm and 2 mm, to a mating surface of
either aluminum or PCB and covering them with glass. The materials were then
cured according to their technical data sheets. The competitive, pre-cured gel was
applied to the same substrates and covered with glass following manufacturer
instructions. The position of each sample was then marked on the glass.