ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THERMAL SILICON PAD

Thermal pad is a kind of thermal conductive functional composite material with certain thermal conductivity and flexibility. It is mainly used to fill the gap between semiconductor device and radiator, so as to improve the transfer efficiency of excess heat generated by semiconductor device in work.

Advantages: 

1. Soft material, good compression performance, good thermal insulation performance, large adjustable thickness range, suitable for filling cavity, natural viscosity on both sides, strong operability and maintainability;

2. The main purpose of selecting silicon thermal pad is to reduce the contact thermal resistance between the heat source surface and the contact surface of the radiator, and the thermal conductive silicon pad can fill the gap between the contact surfaces well;

3. Because air is a bad conductor of heat, it will seriously hinder the heat transfer between the contact surfaces, and the air can be extruded out of the contact surface by adding a heat conducting silica gel sheet between the heat source and the radiator;

4. With the supplement of the silicon thermal pad, the contact surface between the heat source and the radiator can be fully contacted better, so that the face-to-face contact can be achieved, and the temperature response can be as small as possible;

5. The thermal conductivity of the silicon thermal pad is adjustable and its thermal stability is better;

6. The process difference of heat conduction silica gel sheet in structure is closed, which reduces the process difference requirements of radiator and heat dissipation structure;

7. The thermal conductive silica gel sheet has the insulating property (this feature needs to be added with appropriate materials in the production);

8. The heat conducting silica gel sheet has the effect of shock absorption and sound absorption;

9. The thermal conductive silica gel sheet has the convenience of installation, test and reuse.

Disadvantages: 

Compared with thermal conductive silicone grease, thermal conductive silicone pad has the following disadvantages:

1. Although the thermal conductivity is higher than that of silicone grease, the thermal resistance is also higher than that of silicone grease;

2. The process of thermal conductive silicon film with thickness less than 0.5mm is complex and its thermal resistance is relatively high;

3. The range of temperature resistance of thermal conductive silicone grease is larger: silicone grease - 60 ℃ ~ 300 ℃, thermal conductive silicone pad - 50 ℃ ~ 220 ℃;

4. Price: thermal conductive silicone grease has been widely used at a low price. Thermal conductive silicone pads are mostly used in notebook computers and other thin, small and precise electronic products, with a slightly higher price.

Compared with thermal conductive silicone grease, thermal conductive silicone film has the following disadvantages: