February 2, 2019 – Skyhaven Systems was awarded a contract from the Department of Energy to develop a new class of thermal interface materials for cooling high power electronic components. Continued development of electronic systems for on-detector nuclear electronics demands new thermal management technology to dissipate high thermal heat loads that can have deleterious effects on electronics’ performance and reliability. Components such as GaN transistors have high thermal loads on the order of 200 W/cm2 each where multiple transistors are mounted on ceramic dielectrics. Accordingly, new cooling approaches are needed for these transistors that mate to the ceramic dielectric substrate and where there is no electrical conductance to or within the cooling system. One desired solution by electronic designers is to use new thermal interface materials (TIMs) that can function as adhesives, pastes, underfills, and coatings for cooling electronic components and systems. With these TIMs, they can be readily applied to electronic components to passively transfer heat without complicating the electronics with larger thermal management devices. Skyhaven is developing micron-size particles of copper or aluminum coated with an electrically insulative layer of AlN. This culminates in 100-200 micron size particles that are electrically insulative yet have high thermal conductivity on the order of 200 W/m-K. This class of TIM particles can be coated onto an electronic component to readily conduct heat away without conducting electrons.