Current TIM technologies include thermal greases or pastes, phase change materials, solders and thermally conductive adhesive tapes. The thermal conductivity of the best thermal greases available in the market are on the order of 10^5 W/m^2 -K. However, thermal greases, which are single use applications, are oily so their utilization is messy, making them difficult to apply in a thin, uniform coat. This reusable technology employs vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to bridge the interfaces. By using a CNT array as dry interface material, his technology can perform as a thermally conductive tape that provides not only good thermal conducting ability but also strong mechanical bonding between the mating surfaces. It has been shown that a small fraction of CNTs as filling material could induce a 125% enhancement in thermal transport. This interface material can be directly applied to any interface that needs high thermal conductivity.

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