Thermal management with diamond

The measurement of thermal conductivity in a material like diamond can be difficult and a number of techniques have been developed both for measuring the in plane and perpendicular thermal conductivity. These techniques may broadly be divided into solid state and pulse techniques. The former rely on the application of a steady heat source at one end of a sample and a heat sink at the other while measuring the temperature differences along the sample, the latter techniques involve the generation of a short thermal pulse at a particular spot followed by measurement of the thermal wave front propagation. This gives a measure of thermal diffusivity which can easily be related to thermal conduction. Some of the techniques devised are reviewed with an indication of their accuracy