Fabrication of acrylic copolymer with aluminum nitride fillers and its physical and thermal properties

Heat dissipation during operations of electronic devices is a serious issue with device miniaturization and high power consumption. As one practical approach to reducing the device temperature, thermally conductive adhesives can be used between printed circuit board and heatsink materials. By incorporating the aluminum nitride (AlN) with acrylic copolymer matrix, thermal conductivity and adhesive properties are examined with different sizes and content of particulate fillers. Acrylic copolymer is synthesized using butyl acrylate and acrylic acid monomers via solution polymerization, and AlN particles are used as thermally conductive fillers. The overall monomer conversion reaches more than 96% after 140 min reaction time. Considering both adhesive properties and thermal conductivity of adhesives, it is desirable to apply 20 wt% nano-AlN filler to acrylic copolymer adhesives.