Increasing heat dissipation efficiency and lifetime of processor by thermal grease containing graphene

Abstract

Recently, using thermal grease is the most commonly method for improving heat exchange efficiency at the junction between the heat source and the heatsink. The thermal conductivity of grease becomes a key factor determining heat dissipation performance for high power electronic components, such as central processor units (CPUs). Graphene is known as one of the highest thermal conductivity materials, thermal conductivity of monolayer graphene is up to 5200 W/mK (compared with the thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes is 2000 W/mK and the Silver is 410 W/mK). This suggests graphene is one of the most potential materials for thermal grease. In this paper, the thermal grease containing graphene was used as the thermal interface material for Intel Core i5 processor. The results of the heat dissipation performance showed that the saturated temperature of CPU decreased by 4℃ when using thermal grease containing 1% graphene, and the CPU’s lifetime was estimate to increase by 40% compared to using silicone grease.