No more thermal grease

Calina

Enlightened
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Jul 26, 2006
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Longueuil, Québec
This is a great new product :

"The metallic glue has multiple applications, many of them in the electronics industry," says Huang. "As a heat conductor, it may replace the thermal grease currently being used, and as an electrical conductor, it may replace today's solders. Particular products include solar cells, pipe fittings, and components for computers and mobile devices."

http://www.gizmag.com/mesoglue-metal-glue/41292/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
 
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Illum

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Central Florida, USA
The advantage of thermal grease is that the device coupled is removable. The concept of taking a chisel to an LED star when comes to swapping out for a better one doesn't sound too appealing.

Interesting article though, currently arctic silver possesses capacitive behaviors when potting drivers, I wonder if this line of metallic glue will exhibit similar tenddencies
 
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RobertMM

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Las Piñas, Philippines
Pardon me illum, but what does capacitive behavior when potting mean?
The potting compound somehow takes a "charge" and provides a brief burst of current when the light is turned on?
 

Illum

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I take that back, only the silver impregnated variety has that problem.

If its applied across two electrical paths, when cured it will generate a capacitive feedback from one electrical path to another. If one path is signal and the other is power, then cross conductance becomes a concern. Remember that a capacitor cannot pass direct current, but can pass alternating current. If your driver is PWM and you used something capacitatve to pot it, a measurable portion of that PWM signal may end up bouncing on traces that are not meant to carry it and may behave erratically.

I have had working drivers perform flawlessly on the testbench and then after potting stop working altogether. Potting just means you encapsulate the driver with it to maximize thermal dissipation when mounting it to a proper thermal relief, like a heatsink. still air is an awful insulator [this is why goose down vests are so awesome], potting in essence eliminates any air between the heat source and the thermal relief and diminishes the components shock sensitivity and helps prevent breakage when dropped, etc.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_thermal_adhesive.htm said:
Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity. NOTE: Even though Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive is specifically engineered for high electrical resistance, it should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. The cured adhesive is slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridged two close-proximity electrical paths.
 
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