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[Nov 2006]
Ceramics Process Systems and sp3 Diamond Technologies Form Strategic Partnership
CPS - Ceramics Process Systems Corporation (Chartley, MA, USA), a developer and manufacturer of aluminium silicon carbide (AlSiC) thermal management and packaging solutions, has announced a strategic partnership with sp3 Diamond Technologies Inc (Santa Clara, CA, USA), a supplier of DiaTherm™ diamond heat spreaders and diamond products for solving thermal management challenges in high performance applications. Geared towards meeting the growing market need for electronics packages with enhanced thermal dissipation requirements, the two companies are partnering to provide AlSiC packages incorporating diamond pins.
Supplying superior thermal dissipation, the new packages provide manufacturers of electronic devices, such as graphics processors, transportation power modules and military communication components, with dramatic device power and reliability improvements through extremely high thermal conductivity (1,200 W/m-K) paths and a tailored, low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). The low density and high strength and stiffness values of AlSiC are said to present added advantages over denser, traditional materials.
"We are excited to enter into this partnership with CPS, as our unique thermal management technologies are a perfect complement to each other," commented Dwain Aidala, President of sp3 Diamond Technologies. "We have immediately added the industry-proven CPS AlSiC packages with diamond pins to our product portfolio, and look forward to the increased market penetration that this partnership will provide."
"The partnership reflects the increasing use of cost-effective diamond heat spreaders in multiple applications to improve hot spot heat transfer capability in packages," stated Grant Bennett, President of CPS. "Diamond has been talked about for a long time as a potential thermal management product, having obvious benefits but a price tag associated with it. Through this partnership, we are able to deliver a package that offers all the benefits of diamond heat spreaders in a cost-effective manner."
Diamond has decreased in cost significantly due to its increased use in both electronic and cutting tool applications. While the cost of diamond is higher on a volume basis compared to other heat-spreader materials, its bill-of-materials cost is low. The increased use of diamond heat spreaders in multiple markets and applications continues to reduce its portion of total device cost. Encapsulating a diamond pin with a thin layer of AlSiC, a metal-matrix composite, and strategically placing the diamond pins near hot spots provides an extremely high thermal path through the package, acting as a vertical solid state heat pipe to conduct heat away from hot spots and out of the package. The addition of thermal pyrolytic graphite at the top of the package dissipates the heat across a broad area at the surface of the package.
www.alsic.com
ENDS