HPS GmbH

customer: ESA/ESTEC (2008 - 2009)
	Within this ESA study, the possibility of using carbon fibres as a substitute for the metal foils in the laminate of printed circuit boards (PCBs) is investigated.

Space electronic mainly relies on thermal conductivity of the PCBs to drain the waste heat created by the components mounted on the PCBs. To enhance the thermal conductivity of the boards usually additional metal layers are used. Another aspect is to reduce the mismatch of the thermal expansion coefficients of the electronic boards to the components mounted onto it. Both issues are currently addressed by co-bonding of copper plated invar foils into the laminate of the PCB. Theses layers possess a significant impact on the overall weight of a space craft.

 

Using thin CFRP films (C-FILM) as a substitute of the metal layers offers several advantages: a significant weight reduction, a reduction of the thermal expansion and an even higher thermal conductivity. In a large sample program, different carbon fibre raw materials as well as samples using CNT-matrices will be investigated. Currently the first batch of CFILMs is under testing and first implementation trials.
Project partners are TESAT (D) for the electronic board manufacturing and INVENT (D) for the CFILM manufacturing.