Coverage Path Planning for Thermal Interface Materials

TL;DR

This paper introduces an automated optimization method for planning the dispense path of Thermal Interface Materials, improving reliability and sustainability in manufacturing of power electronics for automotive applications.

Contribution

It presents a fully automated optimization approach for thermal interface path planning that outperforms manual methods and adheres to manufacturing constraints.

Findings

Automated path planning outperforms manual trial-and-error methods.

Optimized paths increase thermal reliability and reduce material waste.

Validated on real automotive series production equipment.

Abstract

Thermal management of power electronics and Electronic Control Units is crucial in times of increasing power densities and limited assembly space. Electric and autonomous vehicles are a prominent application field. Thermal Interface Materials are used to transfer heat from a semiconductor to a heatsink. They are applied along a dispense path onto the semiconductor and spread over its entire surface once the heatsink is joined. To plan this application path, design engineers typically perform an iterative trial-and-error procedure of elaborate simulations and manual experiments. We propose a fully automated optimization approach, which clearly outperforms the current manual path planning and respects all relevant manufacturing constraints. An optimum dispense path increases the reliability of the thermal interface and makes the manufacturing more sustainable by reducing material waste. We show results on multiple real products from automotive series production, including an experimental validation on actual series manufacturing equipment.