Need for Better Thermal Stability Creating Growth Pipeline for Material Developers
This study focuses on the emerging developments and advances in materials technology to improve and mitigate thermal management issues in 5G devices, highlights the need for thermal management solutions such as thermal interface materials (TIMs) in 5G devices, and discusses the major development and adoption challenges that TIMs face in their commercialization. All 5G devices comprise radio units, active antennas, and other components with greater density in smaller spaces. This arrangement of high-power components necessitates greater energy consumption, generating more heat. The increased heat can cause components to burn out, significantly impacting the whole network. Also, the overheating of these devices can result in performance drops or device failure, causing network issues, outages, and downtime. As this issue can significantly affect users’ personal and professional lives, ensuring efficient heat dissipation in 5G devices is important.
Material technologies with superior capabilities for 5G devices’ thermal management come with significant tradeoffs. For instance, acrylics that form stronger bonds soften at high temperatures. This scenario creates the demand for new material technologies in thermal management that can offer attractive properties and undergo manufacturing at high volumes.
TIMs can improve heat transfer and dissipate heat out of electronic devices. TIMs generally stay between heat-generating components and heat sinks or dissipating devices.
The different forms of TIMs this research covers include:
- Thermally conductive adhesives
- Phase change materials (PCMs)
- Thermal gap fillers
- Thermal tapes
- Thermal grease
- Others (thermal interface coatings, thermally conductive hardware (TCH), and graphite pads)
Main topics covered:
- Current scenario in 5G infrastructure - commercial availability, trends across regions
- Important factors driving the adoption of TIMs
- Technology analysis and need for thermal management
- Stakeholder activities in materials for thermal management of 5G devices
- Patent analysis of materials for thermal management of 5G devices
- Growth opportunities for materials in thermal management of 5G devices
Key focus areas include:
- The need for effective thermal management in 5G devices
- Overview of factors driving the demand for TIMs
- Technology analysis of top materials in the fabrication of TIMs
- Comparative assessment of different types of materials in TIMs across various parameters, such as thermal conductivity, electrical resistivity, and thermal expansion coefficient
- Different types of TIMs, their TRL, benefits, drawbacks, and leading stakeholders
- Patent analysis of different types of TIMs
- Growth opportunities for material developers in thermal management systems
