Integrated Nano-Structured Thermal Adapter Navy SBIR FY2016.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2016.1 Topic No.: N161-052 Topic Title: Integrated Nano-Structured Thermal Adapter Proposal No.: N161-052-0370 Firm: Physical Optics Corporation 1845 West 205th Street Torrance, California 90501 Contact: Alex Kolessov Phone: (310) 320-3088 Web Site: http://www.poc.com Abstract: To address the Navy's need for an advanced heat spreader technology for GaN-based monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Integrated Nano-Structured Thermal Adapter (INSTA) technology, which applies a novel nanotechnology-based approach, paired with highly optimized system design and materials selection, to produce a robust composite heat spreader capable of effectively managing heat fluxes in modern GaN HPA packages, reducing the hot spot temperatures in the near-junction areas, and assisting in reducing the thermal resistance of the MMIC-heat sink interfaces. The proposed technology is immediately applicable to current manufacturing flows in fabrication of GaN-on-SiC MMIC modules and offers a robust, non-degrading heat management solution that is insensitive to thermal cycling and guarantees long lifetime for the high-duty cycle, densely packaged transmit-and-receive modules in future radar or Electronic Warfare systems. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate the feasibility of INSTA by manufacturing samples of nano-enhanced heat spreaders and validating the performance by measuring the basic thermal transmission properties (TRL-3/4). In Phase II, POC plans to optimize the manufacturing process and fabricate mock-up MMIC package prototypes to demonstrate the ability to mitigate simulated hot spots in realistic MMIC structures, to propel the design beyond TRL-5. Benefits: The proposed system will eliminate the need for derating the integrated microwave components in the next generation of military solid-state electronic devices for land, marine, or air deployment, increasing the performance, reliability, and service life. The technology is not limited to near-junction thermal management within MMIC chips. On a macro-scale, it can be easily adapted for thermal management of various electric and electronic components, such as solid state power relays, switches, and amplifiers. The simple, cost-effective INSTA technology is not restricted to military applications. The system will be of commercial interest to all companies producing compact stationary electronics as well as electronics for ground, naval, and aerial vehicles. In its scaled-down form, it can be easily implemented in portable electronics (laptops, tablets, and other lightweight devices). Return