Thermal Gap Fillers Pass The Heat

Thermally-conductive gap filler materials that provide a highly conformable thermal path between hot components and heat spreaders can replace gap-filling elastomeric pads that can over stress solder joints and leads, leading to damage to printed circuit boards. The Therm-A-Gap T630 and T630G are form-in-place, fully-cured, thermally conductive gap fillers that are viscoelastic pastes that are highly conformable at very low pressure. They can fill gaps ranging in size from 0.010'' to over 0.300''. Gaps are often caused by loose or varying assembly tolerances on circuit boards. Both the T630 and T630G deflect by 50% at just one psi of pressure. T630G material contains an added filler of 0.010'' diameter glass beads that provide a compression stop in applications where electrical isolation is required. Both gap fillers provide thermal conductivity of 0.7 W/m-K. They have low levels of extractable silicone and conform to the Telecordia specification (GR78-CORE) for the telecommunications industry. Both one-part materials are UL 94V-0 rated for flammability resistance. And both materials can be dispensed from syringes or tubes without pre-mixing or curing, and no refrigeration is needed. The material is suitable for rework and field repair because of its ease of use. Standard packaging is in 30- and 300-cc tubes. Prices start at around $85 for a 300-cc tube of either material in high volume. CHOMERICS DIV. OF PARKER HANNIFIN, Woburn, MA. (781) 939-4486.