Thermal silicone pad and thermal grease are both thermally conductive interface materials and are widely used in electronic products. So which thermal silicone sheet or thermal grease has a better heat dissipation effect? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of them? How to choose thermal silicone pad and thermal grease?
1. Thermal effect
Thermal grease only needs to be lightly coated with a thin layer of thermal grease on the product, so the thermal resistance is very low. In addition, the wetting properties of thermal grease can well squeeze out air and improve its own thermal conductivity.
On the contrary, it is more difficult to achieve this low thermal resistance effect with thermal silicone pad. Generally speaking, the limit of thermal silicone sheet can only be 0.1mm thick, but considering the mechanical properties of such a thin gasket, glass fiber support is often added to the thin product, which will inevitably increase the thermal resistance.
Therefore, from the point of view of product heat dissipation and heat conduction, thermal grease is obviously better than thermal silicone sheet.
2. Use operability
Thermal grease itself is difficult to apply evenly when smearing, and it will ooze out and contaminate the device.
The thermal silicone sheet itself is relatively uniform, and can be used directly by cutting and tearing the film at will, and can be reused.
Therefore, in terms of operational convenience, thermal silicone pad are better than thermal grease.
3. Service life
Thermal silicone pad has the advantages of low volatility and anti-aging, and its natural service life will be longer, even more than ten years.
Thermal grease will dry out and crack due to the influence of temperature and other aspects in the liquid shape for a long time, so it needs to be reapplied.
From the perspective of service life, thermal silicone pad are more dominant.
4. Price Factor
In terms of price, thermal grease is more advantageous than thermal silicone pads, but due to the complexity of the production and operation of thermal grease, these aspects must become one of our considerations when choosing thermally conductive materials.
Thermal grease is now widely used for heat dissipation, filling or coating of electronics, electrical appliances, and non-components to dissipate the heat generated by components. Such as filling of gaps between CPU and radiator, high-power triodes, thyristor components, and filling of gaps between diodes and substrates, reducing the operating temperature of heating elements.
Thermal silicone pads can be used in many industries, in the power supply industry, such as transformers, capacitors, resistors, inductors, etc., are also widely used in the LED industry, and can be used to connect the aluminum substrate in LED light products to the heat sink. heat dissipation. It can also be applied to PC motherboards, chips, etc. As long as the product is a component with a high power rate, the thermal silicone pad is essential to disperse the heat of these components to the shell.
Thermal grease and thermal silicone pad have their own merits and their application fields need to be based on different products from thermal conductivity, product structure, and product performance. Each product has other fields of application, as long as it is placed in the right place, it is the best product.