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What’s Your Favorite…….TIM?
Posted by Amanda M. Hartnett
Monday, July 14th, 2008
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At some point in our lives each of us has played the “What’s your favorite” game. “What’s your favorite…sport? What’s your favorite….Ice cream?” Well, I want to play the, “What’s your favorite TIM material” game.
I have worked with quite a few types of TIM materials in my lab testing, but surely not as many as my readers. Therefore, I’d like to know what materials you are using and why. What makes them your favorite?
All Answers are appreciated. There is no wrong answer.
It is probably only fair if I begin this forum with a note on my favorite TIM. For many reasons, but most certainly its ease of application and removal, my favorite TIM material is the pure indium Heat Spring. Just like a piece of aluminum foil, an indium preform can be cleanly applied as a preform and cleanly peeled back just as easily.
Jim Hisert:
Although I prefer In, In/Ag, and Au/Sn – there is a place in my heart for Sn/Pb. Even though it’s not an alloy thought of for cooling applictions, it has transfered heat out of normal solder joints for hundreds of years.
Arthur:
Recently I tested what I refer to as a carbon pad as a TIM between a heat source and a heat sink. The resulting change in temperature was 0.12C above soapy water in the same tester.
Art.
Johnson Chan:
My favorite TIM is In foil (99.99% In)
We are using this TIM for our Burn-In system and so far after many alternative TIM experiments, only In Foil can be used on our Burn-In condition due to its lowest thermal resistance. Other TIM’s resistance is just too high used.