A Study on the Influence of Thermal Interface Material in Passively Cooled Electrical Components with Attached Heatsink

Abstract This paper studies the effect of the presence of a thermal interface material between a heat source and a heat sink. A heat sink is used as a passive cooling device for a thick film heating element used as a heat source. The heating element is fixed using 2 screws. The temperatures are measured in 2 scenarios: first, where the heating element is placed directly on the heat sink, and second, where a thermal pad is placed between the heat source and heat sink. Using a similar CAD model as the one tested and the same boundary conditions, finite element analysis were solved. The goal is to see if the finite element method delivers similar results as the measured ones and if the method is reliable in predicting the thermal behaviour of the electronic components. Temperature measurements show an improvement in heat source cooling when the thermal interface material is placed between the heat source and heating element. Also, the temperatures from the finite element analysis are similar to the measured ones, making the method reliable for similar applications.