Research progress on solder thermal interface materials

Down to the road of miniaturization and high power density, the heat dissipation is becoming one of the critical factors restricting further development of advanced microelectronic devices. Traditional polymer-based thermal interface materials (TIMs) are not competitive for the high efficiency thermal management, mainly due to their low intrinsic thermal conductivity and high interface thermal resistance. Solder-based TIM is one of the best candidates for the next generation of thermal interface materials. This paper conducts a perspective review of the state of the art of solder TIM, including low melting alloy solder TIM, composite solder TIM and nanostructured solder TIM. The microstructure, process parameters, thermal performance and reliability of different TIMs are summarized and analyzed. The future trends of advanced TIMs are discussed.