A frequency-domain thermoreflectance method for measuring the thermal boundary conductance of a metal-polymer system

The use of nanostructures in electronic devices has opened up a new field of challenges in thermal management, where standard thermal measurement techniques reach their limits. An especially challenging scenario is related to the thermal transport at interfaces between dissimilar materials. In these interfaces, a considerable thermal resistance arises. As the number of interfaces per area increases, the interface thermal resistance becomes a limiting factor in heat dissipation of the device, impeding the heat flow out of the device. In this work, we describe a contactless, optothermal method for measuring the thermal boundary conductance (TBC) of heterointerfaces, the frequency-domain thermoreflectance (FDTR) method. The method is demonstrated by measuring TBC between gold and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). By inserting a nickel nanofilm between gold and PMMA, the TBC increases from 59 MW/m2K to 139 MW/m2K.