Multifunctional Material Structures Based on Laser-Etched Carbon Nanotube Arrays

High power electronics in transportation and aerospace sectors needs size and weight reduction. Multifunctional and multistructured materials are currently developed to couple electromagnetic (EM) and thermal properties, i.e. shielding against electromagnetic impulsions, and thermal management across the thermal interface material (TIM). In this work, we investigate laser-machined patterned carbon nanotube (CNT) micro-brushes as an alternative to metallic structures for driving simultaneously EM and heat propagation. The thermal and the electromagnetic response of the CNT array is expected to be sensitive to the micro-structured pattern etched in the CNT brush.