Thermal Management

The development of efficient methods and processes for heat dissipation and cooling of electronic components like semiconductors, circuit boards, or systems is a permanent topic. The trend to continuous minimization of electronic parts leads to concentrating the electrical energy on even smaller areas or volumes and therefore to increased requirements for a more effective thermal management.

The operating temperature strongly influences the lifetime of high-performance electronic devices. In order to maximize the lifetime, thermal management solutions e.g. heat sinks become key. Heat sinks are passive heat exchangers that effectively dissipate the heat generated by an electronic component or a mechanical device. Conventional heat sinks are usually made of aluminum or copper. For demanding applications with very high power loss, graphite fins, made from SIGRATHERM flexible graphite, can be used to increase the performance of the heat sink. Due to the outstanding thermal conductivity of expanded graphite, heat can be distributed effectively und therefore local hot spots can be avoided. By using expanded graphite, the weight of the heat sink can be reduced significantly: expanded graphite weighs 75% less than copper and 25% less than aluminum.

The broad portfolio of SIGRATHERM graphite materials offers many more intelligent thermal management solutions. Our SIGRATHERM GFG graphite powders are powerful conductive additives for many polymers and SIGRATHERM graphite foil can e. g. also replace conventional heat-conducting pastes as an interface material. The excellent compressibility of flexible graphite foil produced from expanded natural graphite enables an optimized form fit and eliminates air inclusions.

Shipment and distribution of temperature-sensitive goods requires stable and uniform cooling at a certain temperature range and its control during the whole transportation process. Compliance with the specific requirements of each individual cold chain is needed to protect food from perishing or medicines and vaccines from wearing off their effect or even changing it.

Best thermal packaging in combination with an ideal cold chain technology is key for product safety and functionality. Failure of cold chain logistics must be prevented at all costs.

In any case, transport-related supply-chain emissions make a significant share of total CO2 emissions. If effective cold chain technologies are required, the transport energy demand is even higher. Thus, using sustainable transport solutions which drive transport decarbonization down or even target zero-emission transport are an additional aspect to be considered when choosing the best transport and cold chain solution.

SIGRATHERM flexible graphite products support passive cooling systems due their outstanding thermal conductivity, chemical stability and corrosion resistance. And not only are they non-toxic, harmless, and non-flammable, but they also offer the great benefit of improving the thermal conductivity and therefore the performance of phase change materials (PCM), too. Thus, they support not only latent heat and cold thermal energy storage systems but also product and transport safety, allow for producing reusable packaging and reduce CO2 emissions - and are ideal materials to be used in combination with PCMs.