Automated test system for in-situ testing of reliability and aging behaviour of thermal interface materials

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are widely needed to improve thermal contacts for facilitation heat transfer in electronic packaging, such as that associated with the flow of heat from microprocessor to a heat spreader or a heat sink in a computer. Due to thermal mismatch between these components mechanical strain occur which cause pump out, cracks or delamination of TIM. In order to qualify the reliability and aging of TIMs, traditional power cycle test is commonly used to detect potential thermal failures. This traditional power cycle test is a time consuming process due to its long heating and cooling time. Therefore a new automated test system for in-situ reliability testing of TIMs is developed and will be presented in this paper. The new test system is designed to be able to analyze the aging and reliability behavior of most common TIMs. The TIMs can be measured in-situ and under real conditions as they are used in real applications.