4 ms·
The "summary and conclusion" says the key thing: it doesn't matter much which paste you're using. Proper application is far more important: No gaps/bubbles, se
by crispyambulance 9y ago
The "summary and conclusion" says the key thing: it doesn't matter much which paste you're using.
Proper application is far more important: No gaps/bubbles, seated with proper pressure, thinnest possible layer.
I've had success in a production environment with the arctic silver 5. This was for a switch fabric IC that can hit 200W, forced-air-cooling through a vapour-chamber heatsink. FWIW other pastes worked fine too, but the factory preferred working with viscous compounds.
- overcast 9y agoMy beef with arctic silver stuff, is that it's electrically conductive. Not that I've ever run into an issue with it, not something I would risk on big production pieces.
- MertsA 9y agoArctic silver is not electrically conductive. It is slightly capacitive, but even getting gobs of it randomly across a motherboard is most likely not going to do anything.
- crispyambulance 9y agoWell, it does have silver particles in it. However, these are in a colloidal suspension. The stuff does not conduct. I know because I had the same concern and I tried to measure it. Moreover, the voltages that something like this is likely to come into contact with is on the order of 1V for BGA packages upon which it gets mounted. Proper application, of course, mitigates the rest of the concerns about this material.
- agumonkey 9y agoSomeone recently told me about ceramic compound which is said to be much better, and doesn't have this "issue". Now, since other below tried and seem to be confident is that it's not conductive it seems that we both had too much fears.