Using AlGr material as a heat sink

15/08/2016

In recent years, there has been a rapid development of semiconductor laser technology for solving many practical problems. In real lasers, the efficiency is approximately 50-60 %. This means that 40-50% of the electrical energy supplied to the semiconductor crystal is converted into thermal energy and leads to heating of its active region. Thus, heat removal from the heat area is one of the main factors limiting the output power of laser diodes. In this regard, many companies are conducting intensive research and development aimed at finding more effective methods of heat removal from the active area of the laser crystal.

Our work in the field of creating high-heat-conducting metal-matrix composite materials allowed us to make a proposal for the possible use of the Al-Gr material we obtained as a heat sink. The material has anisotropic thermal conductivity. Its value reaches 600 W/m*K in the plane of maximum values of thermal conductivity. Our mathematical modeling has shown that there are combinations of the location of our material that allow us to obtain results on heat removal not only comparable, but also superior in efficiency to traditional options with copper heat sinks. Thus, with the most optimal arrangement of the composite, it is possible to reduce the temperature of the semiconductor crystal by 8̊С.