For electronic packaging applications, the three desirable properties of an insulating ceramic substrate are: high thermal conductivity, thermal expansion match with the device and low dielectric constant. While some monolithic ceramics show promise, an alternative approach is to design and fabricate a composite material which will have these properties. We propose a new material: glass ceramic matrix-diamond particle composites. Since diamond has very high thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion coefficient, we expect that glass ceramic matrix- diamond composites will have the desirable properties of a substrate. In Phase I research, we intend to investigate the feasibility of fabrication of these composites. The composites will be fabricated by sinterforging of powder compacts of glass matrix-diamond particles. The thermal, dielectric and mechanical properties of the composites will be determined as a function of volume fraction of diamond particles in the matrix.
