Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are applied in packaging of electronic devices for heat dissipation purposes. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising material due to their high thermal conductivity properties which will give optimum performance as TIMs. In this research study, electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is used which enables the deposition process conduct at room temperature with simple equipment setup which beneficial for CNTs deposition. As-produced CNTs was purified and directly deposited on heat spreader using direct current (DC) electricity. Dimethylformamide (DMF) was used as suspension medium for CNTs and the effect of suspension concentration was studied. From the screening of suspension concentration, 0.50 mg/mL yielded good deposition with thickness of 4.78 μm of CNTs deposited on heat spreader at applied voltage of 150V and 10 min deposition time. Further studied in different applied voltage and voltage of 250 V shows the maximum thickness of 15.01 μm with 2.0 mg weight of deposited CNTs which is suitable for fabrication of TIM.
A simple method of growing carbon nanostructures (CNS), a mixture of carbon nanotube (CNT) and carbon nanofiber (CNF),
directly on a nickel catalyst layer electroplated on the copper substrate at low reaction temperature and atmospheric
pressure via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) was investigated in this study. The nickel catalyst was prepared using
electroplating methods and the current density was varied to give the nickel catalyst layer with different thicknesses
and grain sizes prior to the growth of CNS which was carried out at 600°C and under a mixture of 25 sccm: 100 sccm of
acetylene to nitrogen for 40 min. A nickel catalyst layer electroplated at 1 mA/cm2, which possess a smaller grain size and
thinner layer of nickel catalyst, enables the synthesis of high quality and dense CNS as well as high ratio of CNT over CNF.