Methods for creating thermally conductive boron nitride films and coatings on component surfaces

INV-20002

Background

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) particles are an industrialized filler that provides increased thermal conductivity to resin systems. hBN particles have high thermal conductivities with the long axis of the crystal exhibiting ~300-600 W/mK and the short-axis exhibiting ~20-40 W/mK. Further, hBN is a good dielectric. This combination makes hBN particles a choice filler for thermal management applications that require dielectric materials.

Technology Overview

In this invention, the incorporation of hBN into polymeric compounds is done by novel processing techniques that are compatible with a range of current and future products.

These processing techniques include:

1) the creation of single and multiple layers of percolated hBN particles on the surface of other materials to serve as a thermal spreading layer to dissipate heat build-up

2) a sandwich structure that combines glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP) and hBN filled epoxy to create thermally conductive hBN-GFRP hybrid materials

Introducing a thin monolayer of hBN at the surface allows heat to spread without impacting the material properties and extending the longevity of the material.

Benefits

- Reduce local hotspots that affect electrical and mechanical behavior

- Decouples thermal conduction from electronic conduction via material identity

- Significant thermal spreading with relatively small electrical interference

- Low cost materials

Applications

- Radome heat spreader coatings, including aerospace, naval, and terrestrial environments

- RF (Radio frequency) components

- PCB heat spreading layers

- Circuit boards

- Transparent or translucent thermal coatings

- Thermal management within batteries and in cell packaging