Session: K16-03: HEAT TRANSFER IN ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT III

Paper Number: 138711

138711 - High-Performance Electronics Thermal Management Based on High Thermal Conductivity Boron Arsenide 

Abstract: 

Heat dissipation is one of the most critical technological challenges for modern electronics systems. Our
recent efforts in addressing heating issues focus on developing novel semiconductor materials with ultra-
high thermal conductivity including boron arsenide (BAs). Here, I will present our device application
examples based on BAs for advanced thermal interface and electronic packaging. First, I will describe our
efforts in developing conducting and flexible thermal interface beyond the current state of the art, based
on self-assembled manufacturing of BAs crystals. Through rational design of BAs microcrystals in
polymer composite, we have demonstrated scalable thermal interface materials with desirable
characteristics of high thermal conductivity of 21 W/m·K and excellent elastic compliance similar to that
of soft biological tissues down to 100 kPa. Second, I will discuss our successful integration of BAs with
wide bandgap semiconductors such as GaN HEMTs. The device transport study characterize such
heterogenous interface energy transport and showed that GaN-on-BAs structures exhibit a high thermal
boundary conductance of 250 MW m ⁻²  K ⁻¹ , best among all GaN-high thermal conductivity substrates. In
addition, device-level hot-spot temperatures with length-dependent scaling shows that the power cooling
performance of BAs exceeds that of reported diamond-GaN and SiC-GaN devices due to their unique
phonon band structures and interface spectral matching. Together, this study underscores the high great
promise of using the new semiconductor, BAs, for future power electronics and emerging applications in
wearable electronics and soft robotics.

Publications:
1. Ying Cui, Zihao Qin, Huan Wu, Man Li, and Yongjie Hu, Nature Communications 12, 1284
(2021).
2. J. Kang, M. Li, H. Wu, H. Nguyen, T. Aoki and Y. Hu, Nature Electronics 4, 416-423 (2021).
3. J. Kang, M. Li, H. Wu, H. Nguyen, and Y. Hu, Science 361, 575-578 (2018)

Presenting Author: YING Cui ucla

Presenting Author Biography: Ying Cui is a PhD student at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of California, Los Angeles, under the supervision of Professor Yongjie Hu. She received her BS in applied chemistry from South China University of Technology and her MS in chemical engineering from Zhejiang University. Her current research focus is on developing high performance structures for thermal energy and heat management.

Authors:

YING Cui ucla
Zihao Qin ucla
Huan Wu ucla
Man Li ucla
Huu Nguyen ucla
Yongjie Hu ucla