Compliant thermal connectors, methods and assemblies

摘要

A thermal connector for conducting heat from microelectronic components such as semiconductor chips to a heat sink. The connector includes a large number of flexible thermal conductors desirably formed as elongated "S"-shaped strips or ribbons. The conductors can flex to accommodate tolerances in the assembly and displacement of the components caused by thermal expansion. The conductors may have relatively thin neck sections to increase the flexibility of the conductors, The connector may be fabricated by a process which includes fabrication of the conductors as flat strips, bonding of the conductors to a pair of opposed planar sheets and vertically moving the sheets away from one another to expand the conductors vertically to their final three-dimensional configuration.