Manufacturing and Materials

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Hi to everyone and welcome to this Boyd and 3M webinar! Okay, right now I'd like to introduce today's presenters. Now joining us from the 3M Electronic Materials Solutions division today is Joseph Petri. Joseph is currently a 3M Electronic Assembly Solutions Account Manager, here in the USA he is a valuable resource for engineering and converting discussions regarding thermal interface materials, electrically conductive adhesives, shielding, and grounding tapes and EMI absorber materials for electronics applications in many markets, with over 30 years of converting experience Joseph previously managed the 3M Industrial adhesives and tape business simultaneously holding the product marketing application development manager and Key Account Manager responsibilities to drive innovative solutions with customers. Now also with us today from Boyd is Andy Chou, Andy is an ODM Sales Director with over 15 years of experience working in the area of thermal management solutions, he also leads Boyd's NPI team in developing new and innovative thermal management products and applications with experience as a global technical engineer Key Account Manager and product manager Andy is keenly in tune to the thermal management industry and attendant market trends, so gentlemen, welcome to today's event. And with that, I'm gonna pass things along to Joseph who's with 3M to start things off. So Joseph, go right ahead.

Hello everyone, and thank you for attending today's webinar discussion of 3M thermal interface materials. I'm Joseph Petri from 3M electronic assembly solutions, a leading solutions provider of thermal EMI, shielding, bonding and protection tapes for electronics manufacturers. 3M is a company that never really stops inventing technologies and products that make companies more productive, homes more efficient, and lives better. Today we will have a brief discussion on 3M thermal interface materials. We're going to enhance cooling for electronic devices. Here is an artist's rendition of what the world would look like if we could see the wireless signals of the connected devices around us and it's this explosion of connected devices driving the need for 3M electronic assembly solutions. Consumer demand is high for more compact, more powerful electronics but the denser circuits required for smaller devices generate more heat, making higher performing thermal management materials a necessity. In this webinar, Boyd and 3M will focus on thermal management materials that quickly and efficiently dissipate heat even within tight spaces found in today's connected world. From oil and gas, transportation, health care to connected cities, connected homes, connected cars, these connected devices are driving the need for 3M electronic assembly solutions.

For example, this large rolling connected computer has many applications for 3M solutions. Throughout the vehicle, there are many materials that make new automotive innovations a reality and thermal management is an integral part of that success.

As an engineer you have access to a wide range of adhesives, tapes, fillers, and more including options with other desirable properties such as electrical insulation and vibration damping optimized for efficient processing. These materials provide unique electronic devices and make them more reliable and beat the heat. There are great resources online that explain in detail the importance of thermal conductivity, we're not going to go into a discussion of thermodynamics today. However, it is the ability of a material to transfer heat efficiently that plays a significant role in cooling electronics. 3M thermal interface materials provide good surface wetting between two surfaces to achieve that result.

There are four primary factors to consider when selecting a 3M thermal interface material, first the thickness of the gap or area between the two surfaces we are trying to fill, for example in the picture there there's a heat sink and an integrated circuit. The thermal interface material is going to be placed between the two knowing what that gap could be or should be is the first thing to consider. The second consideration is the smoothness or finish of the two surfaces. The integrated circuit or the back of the heat sink; are they smooth or are they rough? The third factor is how are the parts to be assembled, will it be screened together or mechanically fastened or does your design need a high adhesion tape to hold that heatsink to that heat source? The fourth factor is what is the target thermal conductivity or the K value that you are looking for. We can't stress enough it's these combination of these four basic features of our portfolio that help match the right product for your application. In this, in the bottom center part of the slide, you can see an example of someone using too hard of a tape where they were unable to get the tape to wet out on the surfaces and therefore eliminating the air.

Our goal is to replace the air with tape and how do we do that? Well, these thermal interface materials; they're sometimes called TIMs. You might refer to them as gap pads, silicone pads. They're filled with fillers and resins that help achieve that needed thermal conductivity. However, it's a balance between the needed K value and the materials softness or that shore or durometer to let out on those surfaces that delivers the applications thermal performance.

One important factor when selecting a gap pad is to really consider what is the actual gap thickness. 3M follows an ASTM standard called D5470 test method and we only have a 5 % compression. At this nominal pressure, you can expect to see the thermal conductor performance of our products. The thing to question is perhaps why is a gap so large? You know you may actually find the preferred gap is not that thick or large, and perhaps you've been told to put a thicker gap pad in the application and overstuff it and then compress it with a much higher compression force than 5 % to achieve the overall thermal conductivity. Frankly, it's a great way to sell more material than what is actually needed.

Other engineering tips to consider is whether do you need the product now. Do you need it immediately? 3M is a global player in the thermal interface material business with a go-to portfolio that stocked in various countries around the world. Our acrylic chemistry is readily available worldwide and achieves some very good processing tips for Boyd to minimize scrap loss and costs. Some applications might require an ultra-thick gap pad, you know, the question would be when you're engineering that is, you know, why are we trying to compress this thing so much? Perhaps what we need is a softer gap pad that wets out more easily at lower pressures. Remember if you put a thicker gap pad inside your application, many times you will increase the thermal impedance. Also, if you have a thinner gap pad, you may actually be achieving a better cost saving in your design and then over stuffing your application. Our converters though can stack our thermal interface materials to achieve gaps that it might be quite large, so talk to Boyd about your application and we will consult and design a construction that fits your particular requirements. And while we're talking, if you jot down some part numbers, you know consider go ahead and testing the 3M products today and have them available for your application.

There are some supply chain issues in the marketplace today and having 3M as a backup to your existing design is a way to mitigate the risk of lines down in affecting production. So, this particular slide shows the expanse of our thermal solutions for your applications we've got in the upper right corner something we call a thermal grease. You know, it's kind of messy, it could be called a paste, but you know we have products in that portfolio as well. Down in the lower corner we have a two-part epoxy that are thermally conductive and there are some applications that require the structural bond strength of an epoxy that warrants the use of TC2810 thermally conductive epoxy.

However, for simplicity and speed is the 3M thermally conductive tape and thermally conductive gap pad portfolios that deliver the results for your tough engineering design challenges. So first let's discuss a few tape options. And when I say tape, I need you to think adhesion, like a tape that will, scotch tape, that will hold and have high adhesion you may be designing an application where the tape itself needs to hold the heat sink to the heat source and that's what the thermally conductive tape portfolio is able to deliver. Some of our tapes such as the 8805, if you want to jot these part numbers down 8805, 8810, great adhesion, starts at about a 1/2 millimeter in thickness and goes up to about a millimeter in thickness but there's some applications where you need a tape high adhesion, but there's just not enough space and that's why we even have 9882, a two mil thermally conductive tape solution. So, plenty of tape options where you need the adhesion of help hold your assembly together. The second product portfolio here on the slide is in the lower left corner it's our thermally conductive gap pads interphase pads. Think of gap-filling, these paths typically need a secondary mechanical fastener to hold the assembly together however we've got an expansive portfolio that has different thicknesses as well as that shore value to wet out and achieve the best thermal conductivity for your assembly. Something also interesting to note here is how I've called out our acrylic portfolio. You know 3M is a large tape manufacturing company and acrylic chemistry is in our core,and we have acrylic gap pads such as 5590H, halogen-free or the extremely cost-effective 5571 gap pad for alternatives to what folks have been traditionally using silicone gap pads for.

We also have silicone gap pads such as our go-to products 5591, 5583, 5516 and 19, and those are required when you need electrical isolation. Some of our products have a thin polymer on one side, as well as applications where the operating temperature approaches 130 degrees centigrade continuous and sometimes those applications you will need our silicone gap pads. Take a look at some applications here. For example, if you're taking notes and you're working on any LED lighting applications, we're having great success worldwide using our 88 series tapes 8805, 8810 to holding the base to a heat spreader. Some sort of mechanical aluminum support or heat sink, the 8805, 8810 is an excellent choice for those high adhesion applications related to LED lighting. Sometimes though these LED lighting applications that require bonding or joining, you know, relying on the adhesion also have a requirement for UL94 flammability as such 3M as a new product it's our 8926 high adhesion thermal interface material. This construction is very good also for the LED lighting industry, or other flat panel displays chip to heatsink assemblies printed circuit boards but by having that ULV0 rating and being so thin, like a tape of only 0,2 millimeters, delivers and good thermal conductivity, look at that thermal conductivity. 1,5 watts per meter Kelvin; very good solution for a lot of designs.

We talked about our thermal gap pads here in the electric vehicle, hybrid electric vehicle marketplace. Here's an example of a battery assembly. There's a need for heat management between each one of those individual cells, the battery pack itself, to maybe the case. And then this case and cells themselves to the cooling plate, these kinds of applications are filled with the 3M acrylic gap pad portfolio. And I wonder, why the acrylic gap pad portfolio would be important for the electric vehicle marketplace? Here on this slide I make reference to the fact that it's weight reduction. Weight reduction is critically important in the overall electric vehicle marketplace and our acrylic gap pads such as 5590H or 5571 are 20 % lower weight reduction versus the same caliper silicone constructions.

What's also interesting to note is look at the thermal conductivity of that 5590H. I put that nice red star by because it has what is traditionally considered to be silicone gap pad performance of 3 watts per meter Kelvin ULV0 but in an acrylic gap pad selection. Sometimes you may not need that level of conductivity, so the 5571 it would be considered one of our second global go-to acrylic gap pad products. Again, these acrylic gap pads are excellent for long term thermal stability at about 110C but because 3M is an acrylic based company, there's also a significant cost advantage over silicone chemistry using acrylics. Another significant advantage that Boyd can share with you is that these acrylic chemistries are available in a roll form, what that means is, you know as you're designing a part if it can be converted in a role form you can minimize the scrap while converting your finished part by the way it's oriented in their web. Ao there's some significant advantages of the acrylics regarding performance as well as convertibility for Boyd. Now don't get me wrong, we have an expansive silicone gap pad portfolio as well, some of them are electrically isolating if you note they're the 5516S, 3,1 watts per meter Kelvin has a very thin polymer laminated to one side which really helps in that aim. So, to review our thermal tapes, thermal gap pads have both acrylic chemistry and silicone chemistry.

We've got a variety of calipers and a variety of shore values that we can match to fit your design challenge. There you know again one more important point to point out with these materials is that the acrylics, they're really excellent dielectric strength. They've got good enough heat resistance like I talked a minute ago of 110 or 30C and convert extremely well for Boyd to deliver efficiencies you know in your design, talk to Boyd about optimizing the part. Perhaps integrating a pull-tab or some sort of a liner aid that helps with your assembly accuracy and reduce variability in your final product.

You know 3M is ready to help with your design challenges our electronic assembly sales team complements over 300 3M industrial and safety sales representatives, so together, you know, 3M and the Boyd can create innovative thermal interface or bonding and gasket solutions for you. If you jot down a few part numbers that were of interest to you, you know go ahead and contact 3M or your Boyd sales rep for an application discussion or arranging to have some samples sent in for testing.

You know I wanted to finish here today by saying thank you, you know, thank you for letting me introduce the 3M electronic assembly solutions business to you, you know in addition to thermally conductive adhesives for our connected world we have a wide range of electrically conductive solutions, EMI shielding or absorbing solutions, protection tapes, bonding tapes, very very thin tapes for electronics assembly. So in closing, I hope you gain some insight to the characteristics of key thermal interface materials like, for example, silicon and acrylic gap pads or even high adhesion tapes that are great for low profile applications in a wide range of industries. You know there's a lot of options here at your fingertips when you're working through your design challenges, but 3M is here to help. So reach out to 3M or our converter partner Boyd on your next design challenge. On behalf of 3M electronics assembly solutions, I want to say thank you for your time today and this opportunity to speak with you.

Joseph, thanks so much for that great presentation. Now we do appreciate you taking some time to be here with all of us today right now. I'd like to pass things along to Andy, who's with the Boyd. So, Andy, thanks for taking some time out of your schedule today and the floor is yours so go right ahead.

Good day everyone! My name is Andy Cho, ODM Sales Director for the Boyd company. Today, I would like to briefly introduce our thermal management and the converting solution for you. Before we discuss thermal interface material, I would like to give you all a brief overview of Boyd. Boyd is a leading solution provider. We offer technology material and components. We try to solve customers' complex challenges across diverse and growing industry by several different solutions we have, such as thermal management that includes natural convection, forced air cooling, two-phase, and passive cooling liquid cooling systems. For environmental sealing, we have O-Rings, bonding, and adhesive. The spray components, gasket seal, and extrusion for protection. We offer insulation by EMI shielding, noise , vibration, harshness, labeling, and identification. Boyd has been a leading solution provider for over 90 years. We are headquartered in California and have over 1 billion in annual global sales revenue and over 30 manufacturing and design centers around the world.

On the right side of presentation, you will see our acquisition history which represents the experience and the diversification of our organization. Boyd thermal management and converting product can serve a lot of different industries, such as kind of mobile computing, consumer electronic, enterprise, industrial, also some of automotive area. Then we have a global factory in US, in Asia, and also in Europe. We try to cover a lot of the regions that we already reserved and also want to develop several new different areas. Our core manufacture competency, we try to solve in performance challenges across on thermal management protection and environmental sealing that needs us through our precision converting. We've fabricated and combined high performance raw material into custom design solutions for specific OEM performance challenge. We also have a forming process. Forming manufacture transforming rubber, plastic, and foam compounds into 3D shapes, customized for specific OEM applications. We also have a lot of the metal fabrication that includes testing, fabricating, assembly, machining, and coating metal into the thermal management solution and assembly.

Okay, let's talk about the importance of thermal management in next few slides. Why is the thermal management important? As we know there are a lot of the root cause of electronic failure, such as kinds of vibration, humidity, and dust. My most important root cause is the temperature, as we know the high tech products are getting smaller and more powerful and also more advanced. Products produce a more heat, so that's why after all of these the root cause analysis, then we can see it is the root cause of electronic portfolio about 55 percent of the time. According to Moore's law, the number of transistor integrated circuits doubles every two years, so simply put, electronics are getting more powerful. They're also getting smaller and the more compact. They create more heat. The fun fact here is today's smartphones have more processing power than Apollo 11 did when it landed on the moon a long time ago, and over 1 million times more. So, if we cannot avoid the creation of heat, then it's important how to cool it down. What does this have to do with it? Ever notice that your laptop starts to get hot when you use it for an extended period of time? The power that runs our electronics also generated heat. So, everything that consumer power generates heat, and among the heat generated is proportional to the power input. In other words, the more powerful the device, the more heat.

So when we're looking for manufacturing, the faster smartphone and notebooks, then we are really facing the heat issue. When people are facing overheating issues, so they also try to develop some cooling system or cooling model. There are two kinds of systems that are popular in the market. The first one is a passive cooling. The cooling temperature by nature processes material without the use of energy. For example, like smartphone or tablet cooling. It mainly applies in low power devices or closed environments. The material is some kind of graphite sheet, the heat pipe, or vapor chamber. Those are materials getting popular in the future. We also see the active air cooling that utilizes intentional energy to cool down the temperature. For example, the server or notebook, the sample module with a fan in the open environment. Normally this power consumption is much higher than passive cooling.

Next few slides, I would like to talk to you about thermal interface material converting and application. 3M talked about this TIM one and TIM two a lot in previous slides, so I don't want to go through the detail about this one. But just to let you know, when we talk about the thermal interface materials related to some converting, adding the TIM two, that's our interface material between the heatsink and the heat spreader that are also pretty important, and then also very related to converting world. This is what we want to discuss today. For the thermal interface material, there are hundreds of compounds and material options you can choose. Such as a kind of silicon gas filler, a graphite rubber pad, thermal grease, hardware, ceramic electrical insulating or non-insulating high conductivity material. Some materials you can go to the converting process, such as kind of a silicon gap filler, the graphite or film, or the other like electrical insulating.

All this one can go through the precision converting process by Boyd. In the next few slides I will let you know which process we can offer and provide a solution for you for the precision converting process. The first one I would like to introduce; a rotary die-cut for your type material with the outer tight tolerances on the liner. According to customer requirements, it can compensate dimension caused by unstable material. Also this one can creates a number of material size, layers, material products, and also can combine multiple layers into one product delivery to improve assembly time, and cost saving. This is a pretty high conductivity process. Next one is a flatbed die cutting. Steel rule die used for flatbed press are a cost-effective alternative to rotary dies. Automatic capability over 80 stroke per minute. You can convert the TIM material in sheet form, and this is steel rule die cutting can use a stamping process to accommodate larger parts up to 32 inch x 72 inch part size. The stock thickness is up to 1,25 inch thick. Next one is a plotter. TIM conversion this is a CNC type plotter that the tech computer program outlined to cut a complex TIM shapes with a blade. Advantages include no tooling, lower cutting cost, a lower waste, and less material squeeze, and also available for thicker parts.

There's one disadvantage about this one, is a only available for sheet format, so in case of all you want to have some continued roll form, then you probably need to go through the rotary process. Laser cutter conversion is another low cost solution. Like a CNC type plotter that tech computer program online to cut a complex TIM shape with a laser. Advantages that include a no tooling cost and cost-effective, good accuracy. The pattern changes are simple and capable to achieve more intricate and complicated design. Ideally this is only for prototyping. The disadvantage that is a low-volume. So, in case if are you want to some production at higher volumes, you should not go through this process. Water jet conversion is another low-cost solution also like a CNC type plotter that the computer program outlined to cut the complex TIM shape with a water jet. The advantage also includes no tooling cost and cost effective and good accuracy and pattern changes are simple. Also capable for some complex design and ideal for prototyping. Again, the disadvantage for this one, this process is also for lower volume, so higher volume you should consider the other processes that I mentioned before.

Next, I would like to introduce a thermal interface material integrated solution for you. We are not only providing thermal interface material but also heat sink. Then then we also can do the assembly with the heat sink and TIM to build the semi-finished parts. We also do the converting with a pull-tab design in case of a customer wants to have easy release of the liner or pull tab. In case of a some contamination concern, the customer want to have a liner on the top of interface material, we also can do the converting for without pull-tab design. As we mentioned before, there are hundreds of kinds of thermal interface material. Then, how to select it? Here are some guidelines that can bring you some idea of which material which you have. Such as kind of: what is the device size, the area, the volume, the footprint, and also are they putting multiple devices to be cooled all this is a single piece? And what is the maximum dissipation watts of the device? A maximum operating temperature of the device? Is this junction or case temperature? If this is a case temperature, what is the junction to case thermal resistance? And what is the maximum ambient condition it must operate in? So, that's also important. That also affects we should select the higher conductivity one, or we should select some softer one, and also some applications that we need to focus on. Like do you need some have reinforced layer, or you told any other adhesive, the strong adhesive compounded? When you talk about the adhesive, there is also another topic that we want to talk about.

So, what are the two bonding surfaces? Is it metal to plastic, or metal to metal, or plastic to plastic? And also does it need to be mechanically joined with an adhesive? Or you have a self tacky that's good enough? And also, what's the target thickness? Any topography challenge like a pedestal or surface roughness? How much compression force you can offer, you can provide? Or any electrical insulation requirements, and then what's the dielectric breakdown voltage? I think that's also importantly when you select such kind of the interface material. When you talk about the interface material selection, there's also another topic talk about some other heat spreader, and we also need to know you want to spread heat, or you want to shield the component and the user from the heat. And what's the size of the heat source? The hot spot? And then what's your target temperature you want to have once so you apply the TIM or the heat spreader. Also the available area of the heat spreader is also important on the selection of this heat spreader. Another important thing is available thickness of the heat spreader that you want. So basically no matter the interface material or heat spreader, there's some guidelines that you can consider when you try to select the proper one.

Thank you for attending this webinar on thermal interface material in partnership with 3M. If you have any questions or would like to request a quote or sample, please contact me by email or customer service at Boydcorp.com. You can also learn more by visiting our website at www.boydcorp.com and then follow us on social media; LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Joseph and Andy, we want to thank you both so much for being here with us today and for two great presentations. So again, thanks for taking the time to attend this webinar event. Take care and have yourselves a great rest of your day!