Modeling thermal conductivity and CTE for CNT-Cu composites for 3-D TSV application

The goal of this research is to develop a consistent and repeatable method to evaluate: a) effective thermal conductivity, and b) axial and transverse coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of SWCNT (single walled carbon nanotube)-Cu composites, with the view to potentially replacing Cu vias with CNT-Cu TSVs (through-silicon vias) in 3D electronics packaging. Finite element models were built using Abaqus^® v. 6.9. CTE and thermal conductivity models encompassed different SWCNT and Cu interactions at the interface. The impact of changing the volume fraction as well as using filler metals or polymers other than Cu can easily be studied from the proposed models, as long as their bulk properties are known.