Thermal adhesive is a type of thermally conductive

glue Adhesive, also known as glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, is any non-metallic substance applied to one or both surfaces of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation. The use of adhesives offers certain advant ...

used for electronic components and

heat sinks In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

. It can be available as a paste (similar to

thermal paste Thermal paste (also called thermal compound, thermal grease, thermal interface material (TIM), thermal gel, heat paste, heat sink compound, heat sink paste or CPU grease) is a thermally conductive (but usually electrically insulating) chemi ...

) or as a

double-sided tape Double-sided tape is any pressure-sensitive tape that is coated with adhesive on both sides. It is designed to stick two surfaces together, often in a way which is not visible in the end product, due to it being in between the objects rather than ...

. It is commonly used to bond

integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

s to

heatsink A heat sink (also commonly spelled heatsink) is a passive heat exchanger that transfers the heat generated by an electronic or a mechanical device to a fluid medium, often air or a liquid coolant, where it is dissipated away from the device, th ...

s where there are no other mounting mechanisms available. The glue is typically a two-part

epoxy Epoxy is the family of basic components or cured end products of epoxy resins. Epoxy resins, also known as polyepoxides, are a class of reactive prepolymers and polymers which contain epoxide groups. The epoxide functional group is also coll ...

resin (usually for paste products) or cyanoacrylate (for tapes). The thermally conductive material can vary including metals, metal oxides, silica or ceramic microspheres. The latter are found in products that have much higher

dielectric strength In physics, the term dielectric strength has the following meanings: *for a pure electrically insulating material, the maximum electric field that the material can withstand under ideal conditions without undergoing electrical breakdown and beco ...

, although this comes at the cost of lower

thermal conductivity The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to conduct heat. It is commonly denoted by k, \lambda, or \kappa. Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low thermal conductivity than in materials of high thermal ...

. End-user

modding ''Modding'' is a slang expression derived from the English verb " to modify". The term refers to modification of hardware, software, or anything else, to perform a function not originally intended by the designer, or to achieve bespoke specif ...

heatsinks may be supplied with thermal adhesive attached (usually a piece of tape). For products sold through electronic components distributors this is rarely the case; the adhesives are sold separately to professionals.

See also

References

Further reading