Scientists at Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) have broken the ice in developing a heat dissipating material for ultra-high-power defense electronics. This new-fangled material is a composite of diamond and copper and a part of new concept called a “Thermal Ground Plane.”
This material is being developed in collaboration with Raytheon and DARPA. They are aiming to raise thermal conductivity capabilities of this material to 20,000 watts per meter Kelvin which is very high considering that present thermal conductivity of ideal material, copper, is 200 to 300 watts per meter Kelvin.
This material will be used in high-power transmit-receive (T/R) modules in radar systems as a Thermal Ground Plane, a one millimeter thick heat-dissipating sandwich. The material’s conductivity would be improved by adding a liquid coolant able to carry heat away from the T/R module devices.
Heat dissipation will be enhanced by condensing the vapors back into fluid through a heat sink. But this project is still under research as diamond and copper don’t bond well due to various factors which lead to a thermal-expansion mismatch. The material, when in use, will cool the military radar 100 times faster than conventional materials used today.
Via: GeorgiaTech
