I recently caught up with Miloš Lazić, one of our Technical Support Engineers who has taken a special interest in liquid metals. In the lab, Miloš has been experimenting with and creating some of our next-generation solid/liquid hybrid metal materials. Let’s find out what drives his pursuit of the ultimate Thermal Interface Material (TIM).
Jim: Miloš, I noticed you’ve been creating some new TIM prototype materials in the lab. What type of final material are you searching for?
Miloš: Jim, I’m working on solid/liquid hybrid (SLH) metal TIMs. These TIMs combine metals that are liquid at room temperature with ones that are solid. The thermal properties of these new materials will be defined by their thermal conductivity and interface resistance. 
As we know, metals have good thermal conductivity, but most of them are stiff and it’s very hard for them to make an intimate connection between materials and to overcome interface resistance. The solid metal part(s) in SLH will provide high thermal conductivity and the liquid metal on the surface will provide low interface resistance. It is like getting the best from both worlds.