Thermal conductive properties of Ni–P electroless plated SiCp/Al composite electronic packaging material

Electroless plated SiCp/Al composites with a high thermal conductivity are required for electronic packaging application. In this paper, in-plane thermal conductive properties of SiCp/Al composites with and without electroless plated Ni–P coatings are compared, and influence of various characteristics of Ni–P coatings are investigated. It is found that in addition to thickness of the coatings, phosphorus concentration and microstructure of the plated layers also influence the thermal conductive properties of plated composites. Based on the results, it is suggested that a low phosphorus concentration and a properly tailored crystalline microstructure of the Ni–P coatings, together with a reasonable choice of coating thickness, may contribute to optimization of thermal conductive properties of the composite material.