The Winter 2025 issue of Electronics Cooling features a deep technical perspective from Carbice CTO Dr. Craig Green on why traditional temperature-focused thermal design is no longer sufficient for modern high-power electronics. In “Rethinking Thermal Design Priorities in Electronic Packaging” (pages 16–21), Dr. Green challenges long-standing assumptions about steady-state temperature and illuminates the real drivers of device reliability in today’s AI, HPC, and power-dense architectures.
The article explains why the industry’s reliance on Arrhenius-based models and the “10°C rule” leads to oversimplified design decisions—and in many cases, unreliable systems. Dr. Green highlights the failure mechanisms that now dominate at scale: thermomechanical fatigue, thermal gradients, hotspots, and transient load behavior, particularly in AI workloads. These modes do not follow classical temperature-lifetime predictions and increasingly dictate system health, uptime, and total cost of ownership.
Crucially, the feature underscores how next-generation thermal interface materials must deliver more than peak temperature reduction. They must maintain mechanical integrity under cycling, prevent void formation, reduce in-package gradients, and spread heat effectively across large, warpage-prone dies. Dr. Green presents new data showing how vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) solutions like the Carbice® Pad—outperform legacy thermal interface materials by eliminating pump-out, improving uniformity, maintaining surface contact, and sustaining reliability across thousands of thermal cycles.
Dive Deeper Into the Future of Cooling
If you’re looking to understand why so many operators, OEMs, and system integrators are rethinking the thermal interface layer—and why consistent, predictable cooling is becoming a strategic advantage, this article is essential reading.
