Silicon Oxycarbide Accelerated Chemical Vapor Deposition of Graphitic Networks on Ceramic Substrates for Thermal Management Enhancement

Ceramic materials such as aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) and aluminum nitride (AlN) are commonly implemented as heat sinks for a variety of applications. However, the thermal conductivity of these ceramics is too low to act as effective thermal management materials in power electronics applications. With high lateral thermal conductivity, graphitic films would be ideal materials to enhance the thermal management abilities of ceramics. Current direct chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods can only grow several layers of graphene on ceramic substrates with poor adhesion to the substrate. We demonstrate a simple atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) method to deposit micrometer-scale graphitic networks directly on the surface of ceramics making use of dual silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) sources. The graphitic networks have good adhesion to aluminum oxide and can provide sufficient thermal mass combined with superior hear transfer properties for effective thermal management enhancement of ceramic substrates.