Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters) ›› 2014, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (4): 714-722.DOI: 10.1007/s40195-014-0106-7

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Simple Fabrication and Characterization of Discontinuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Aluminum Matrix Composite for Lightweight Heat Sink Applications

Hiroki Kurita1(), Emilien Feuillet2, Thomas Guillemet2, Jean-Marc Heintz2, Akira Kawasaki3, Jean-François Silvain2   

  1. 1. DEN/DANS/DMN/SRMA/LTMEx, CEA Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
    2. Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
    3. Department of Materials Processing, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
  • Received:2013-10-18 Revised:2014-02-19 Online:2014-08-25 Published:2014-10-16

Abstract:

The constant increase in power and heat flux densities encountered in electronic devices fuels a rising demand for lightweight heat sink materials with suitable thermal properties. In this study, discontinuous pitch-based carbon fiber reinforced aluminum matrix (Al-CF) composites with aluminum–silicon alloy (Al–Si) were fabricated through hot pressing. The small amount of Al–Si contributed to enhance the sintering process in order to achieve fully dense Al–CF composites. A thermal conductivity and CTE of 258 W/(m K) and 7.0 × 10-6/K in the in-plane direction of the carbon fibers were obtained for a (Al95 vol% + Al–Si5 vol%)-CF50 vol% composite. Carbon fiber provides the reducing of CTE while the conservation of thermal conductivity and weight of Al. The achieved CTEs satisfy the standard requirements for a heat sink material, which furthermore possess a specific thermal conductivity of 109 W cm3/(m K g). This simple process allows the low-cost fabrication of Al–CF composite, which is applicable for a lightweight heat sink material.

Key words: Carbon fiber, Metal-matrix composites (MMCs), Thermal properties, Powder processing