Side-view SEM of an aligned carbon nanotube film fabricated on a MEMS resonator for measuring thermal and mechanical properties.
Hot spots on chips--especially processors and graphics accelerators--are a mounting problem for thermal management designed to be the heat out of modern electronics, but nanotape may be the answer. Look for nanotape to debut as a substitute for solder pads to mitigate the hot-spot problem within three years. R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog
Mettalic adhesion layers on each side of the central core wet the carbon nanotube forest.
Solder pads could soon be made obsolete by a new nanotape material created by the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) and Stanford University. By sandwiching thermally conductive carbon nanotubes between thin metal foils, nanotape transfers heat away from chips better than solder but with a lightweight flexible material that is cheaper and and more compliant, according to researchers.
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