Intellectual Property Law

US Patent 7867620 - Thermal plate with CNT bundles

The thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes has been experimentally shown to 50% greater than diamond with a theoretical limit 3x as great as diamond. Intel and Hon Hai Precision (Foxconn) have been developing and patenting a variety of nanotube heat sinks and this patent from Rockwell Collins teaches another variation using CNT bundles for cooling of silicon chips. Claim 1 reads:

1. A composite plate, comprising:

a silicon or silicon carbide wafer with etched through via arrays; and

carbon nanotube bundles, the carbon nanotube bundles grown in the etched through via arrays of the wafer over a carbon nanotube growth substrate with a carbon nanotube growth catalyst in a chemical vapor deposition chamber to form a wafer matrix carbon nanotube composite structure from which the carbon nanotube CNT growth substrate is removed,

wherein a metal layer is deposited over an entire wafer surface, the metal layer being solder.

Full post as published by TinytechIP on January 11, 2011 (boomark / email).