THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIALS
Novel Concepts has been developing thermal interface materials since 1982, including a patented diamond filled polyimide interface for high power density electronics and semiconductor applications. Specializing in high-value challenging applications such as, an avionics hard drive vibration-isolating/gap-filling problem that required a 7.5mm thick pad with a thermal conductivity of 3.0 W/m*K, and an outgassing vapor pressure less than 1.0E-4 Pa (better than NASA's optical outgassing specifications).
Novel Concepts is currently developing Metalomer, a thin (50 to 150 microns) compliant thermal interface material. With a thermal conductivity as high as 50 W/m*K, Metalomer is able to bridge the gap between traditional dry interface materials and metal solders.
Metalomer is the first thermal interface material with variable electrical and thermal properties on the same pad. In addition Metalomer may have dissimilar electrical and thermal regions on a single pad. This allows for an electrically conductive high thermal conductivity region adjacent to a high thermal conductivity dielectric region.
Metalomer may also have high density electrical interconnect regions for low insertion force connector applications such as LCD and EL displays, chip-to-board, memory cards, and flex circuit-to-board.
Due to the confidential nature of Metalomer, further disclosure is available only upon request.
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METALOMER THERMAL INTERFACE
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MULTIPHYSICAL METALOMER
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DIAMOND FILLED POLYIMIDE FILM
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 having three separate thermally conductive regions (red, purple and green). Each of these regions has a thermal conductivity proportional to the adjacent heat source pattern (gray) on the multichip module (orange). These thermally conductivity regions may be electrically conductive, or electrically insulating.'))
. This Metalomer pad (blue) has a central 12mm by 12mm high thermal conductivity region (green), and a low electrical resistivity perimeter interconnect region (pink). The central high thermal conductivity region may be electrically conductive, or electrically insulating. The low electrical resistivity perimeter interconnect region is anisotropic, with a high electrical resistance in the XY plane, and a low electrical resistivity in the Z axis.'))
 on 200 micron spacing, embedded in a 75 micron polyimide film (orange). Since the diamonds are larger than the thickness of the polyimide film, the top and bottom of the diamonds are exposed. The polyimide film (and its exposed diamonds) is metal coated (purple) to allow direct solder bonding to both sides. The design depicted has an effective thermal conductivity of 154 W/m*K, which is five times greater than alumina ceramic. In addition to its exceptionally high thermal conductivity, this design has a dielectric strength of 7,500 volts.'))