Development of high heat dissipation insulated metal substrates using thin insulating films

High heat generation worldwide is driving the demand for better heat dissipation. While aluminum nitride (AlN) is commonly used, even higher performance is needed. We developed a new insulated metal substrate (IMS) by coating a thin ceramic film on bulk copper. In this study, we measured and compared the thermal resistance of this IMS and bulk AlN. The results show that the IMS reduces thermal resistance by more than 20% compared to AlN. Thermal simulations also show that it can reduce the size of heat sinks by 40%. This developed IMS is an effective solution for making smaller modules in high applications.