Abstract
Thermally or electrically conductive filler reinforced polymer composites are extensively being developed as the demand for light weight material increases rapidly in industiral applications need good conductivity such as heat sink of the electronics or light. Carbon or ceramic materials like graphite, carbon nanotube or boron nitride are typical conductive fillers with good thermal or electical conductivity. Using these conductive fillers, the polymer composites in the market show wide range of thermal conductivity from approximately 1 W/mK to 20 W/mK, which is quite enhanced considering the thermal conductivity lower than 0.5 W/mK for most polymeric materials. The practical use of these composites, however, is yet limited to specific applications because most composites are still not conductive enough or too difficult to process, too brittle, too expensive for higher conductivity. For practical use of conductive composite, the thermal conductivity required depending on the heat releasing mode are studied first for simplified unit cooling geometry to propose thermal conductivities of the composites for reasonable cooling performance comparing with the metal heat sink as a reference. Also, as a practical design for heat sink based on polymer composite, composite and metal sheet hybrid structures are investigated for LED lamp heat sink and audio amplication module housing to find that this hybrid structure can be a good solution considering all of the cooling performance, manufacturing, mechanical performance, cost and weight.
