Licensable Technologies : Materials : Superconductors

Spherical Boron Nitride Particles and Method for Preparing Them

Abstract
Thermal management, once a minor issue, is now at the top of the list of issues that must be addressed in order to run integrated circuits (IC) at yet faster speeds. Los Alamos scientists have made significant strides toward 'drop in' technology that will significantly enhance the rate of heat removal. Spherical boron nitride (BN), the ceramic material with the highest known thermal conductivity, is now available to replace spherical silica as the filler in IC packages (silica represents approximately a $1 billion/yr. market). The obvious advantage of spherical BN is that its thermal conductivity is about 300 times greater than that of silica. Therefore, high-speed circuits encapsulated with packages containing spherical BN rather than silica will run at lower temperatures and concomitantly higher clock speeds. As BN is now available as spherical particles, it can be 'dropped into' existing injection molding hardware. Previously, BN was only available in 'platelet' form. Polymer melts containing platelets have extremely high viscosity, and thus cannot be used in injection molding.

IP Status: Available both Exclusively and Non Exclusively

Reference Number: 170

S Number: DOE reference no.(s): 94,797

Patents & Applications:
United States National Patent Number 6652822 Issued on 11/25/2003

Posted: 09-17-2004

Contact
John Mott
Technology Transfer Division
Los Alamos National Laboratory
P.O. Box 1663, MailStop C334
(505) 665-0883
jmott@lanl.gov