Three-Component Composite Phase Change Material (PCM) for Electronics Subject to Transient/Pulsed Heat Loads

• Published in: IEEE transactions on components, packaging, and manufacturing technology (2011) Vol. 14; no. 12; pp. 2248 - 2257
• Main Authors: Randriambololona, Andoniaina M., Manepalli, Vivek, McAfee, Rachel C., Ojha, Bidisha, Miraftab-Salo, Rahi, Guye, Kidus, Lee, Hyoungsoon, Graham, Samuel, Agonafer, Damena
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.12.2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Buffers; Composite materials; Conductivity; Copper; Electronics; Heat of fusion; Heating systems; Latent heat; Melting points; Metals; Phase change materials; Phase change materials (PCMs); Pulse duration; Temperature; Thermal conductivity; thermal energy storage; Thermal loading; Thermal management; transient thermal management
• ISSN: 2156-3950; 2156-3985
• DOI: 10.1109/TCPMT.2024.3376234

Harnessing phase change materials (PCMs) for thermal management of power electronic devices shows potential to improve their reliability while decreasing the size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) of the system due to the PCM's high latent heat during solid-to-liquid transition. However, despite its high latent heat of fusion, PCMs are limited by their low thermal conductivity and a narrow operational temperature range near their melting point. We here numerically investigate the thermal buffering capability of three distinct compositions of a novel three-component composite PCM consisting of organic microencapsulated paraffin and metallic fields metal with similar melting temperatures and copper cylindrical micropillars. These composites are evaluated under different single pulsewidth heating and cooling conditions and are benchmarked against a pure copper block. The results indicate that the composites generally surpass pure copper in minimizing peak device junction temperatures when the PCM undergoes phase change under single pulse loading, with the best-performing composite consistently achieving a lower junction temperature than the copper block. The best-performing composite can achieve up to 44% reduction in junction temperature swing compared to the copper reference when under a pulse train loading. These findings highlight the potential of the three-component composite system as an effective thermal buffer for electronics subjected to transient heat loads.