Flexible and lightweight graphene grown by rapid thermal processing chemical vapor deposition for thermal management in consumer electronics

Next-generation consumer electronics require excellent thermal management. Graphene is a good choice because its thermal conductivity is 13 times that of copper. Single-, bi- and few-layer graphene (SLG, BLG, FLG) with large sp2 domains were grown by rapid thermal processing chemical vapor deposition (RTP-CVD) from CH4 and H2 using Ar as the diluting gas. The quality of graphene was investigated by Raman spectroscopy and TEM. To demonstrate the heat dissipation capability of RTP-CVD-grown graphene, a 2 TB solid state drive was used and the temperature was measured by a FLIR thermal camera. Results indicate that high thermal conductivity graphene was prepared by diluting the precursor gas with Ar. SLG was prepared at a growth temperature of 1 000 °C and a time of 25 min. A transition from FLG to high-quality BLG was observed at low H2 concentrations. Using SLG, there was a 5 °C lower temperature rise than using a commercial copper heat dissipator. The heat dissipation ability of SLG was approximately 200 times that of commercial copper heat dissipators.