A common use is heat dissipation, in which the TIM is inserted between a heat-producing device (e.g. an integrated circuit) and a heat-dissipating device (e.g. a heat sink).
There are intensive studies in developing several kinds of TIM with different target applications.
At each interface, a thermal resistance exists and impedes heat dissipation.
In addition, the electronic performance and device lifetime can degrade dramatically under continuous overheating and large thermal stress at the interfaces.
Many recent efforts have been dedicated to developing and improving TIMs[1]: These effort include minimizing the thermal boundary resistance between layers and enhancing thermal management performance, while addressing application requirements such as low thermal stress between materials of different thermal expansion coefficients, low elastic modulus or viscosity, as well as ensuring flexibility and reusability.