ATLANTA, GEORGIA 31 August 2022: Carbice, a world leading sustainable thermal materials company, today opens its new global facility in Atlanta, Georgia. Carbice is setting the standard for thermal interface materials with their carbon nanotube based technology that is solving the problem of heat transfer as technology gets smaller and more powerful; while potentially saving the government and relevant industries billions of dollars in production costs. The Carbice Facility will house the company’s headquarters, manufacturing plant, and Carbice Lab and will be the world’s first full scale vertical carbon nanotube technology facility. Carbice to date has raised $17 million in venture funding with investors including Toyota Ventures, Downing Ventures and Trumpf Ventures. And, most recently received backing from one of the world’s most prolific engineers, designers and investors, Tony Fadell, Principal at Future Shape, who comments:
“Heat is the misery of every high performance electronic engineer. It stunts speed, adds complexity, decreases battery life, and makes manufacturing messy and complicated. Carbice is THE heat painkiller we’ve dreamt of for years, and now it’s a reality!”’
On the opening of the new facility in Atlanta, Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan of Georgia says: “Georgia is uniquely positioned to become the technology capital of the East Coast thanks in large part to the support of some of the world’s leading universities, such as Georgia Tech, where Carbice was born, and an increasing number of incubators and investment hubs. Carbice represents the future of Georgia: an international company led by some of the world’s smartest scientists whose technology is pioneering the advanced materials of space and revolutionizing the future of innovation for major industries. It is crystal clear that Carbice shares our mission to put Georgia on the global technology stage, and we are thrilled to have them in the heart of Atlanta.”
The Engineering Problem: Thermal Management For The Electrification of Everything
From mobile phones to solar panels, to satellites and electric vehicles, Thermal Interface Materials (TIMs) allow vital technology to operate without blowing up or melting down. As technology becomes smaller and more sophisticated, the operating heat emitted from the product has limited space to dissipate and the problem of heat transfer continues to grow.
Conventional TIMs usually fall short of moving heat in real-world applications and have painful tradeoffs. They don’t last long and cost a lot to assemble. Historically, TIMs come in two forms: liquid and solid. Liquid TIMs are placed between two solid interfaces and are a nightmare to work with as they can’t be reworked (as sticky and frustrating as chewing gum on the bottom of your shoe), and degrade over time and cycling. The solid TIM offers great thermal conductivity and ease of use but their thermal resistance is too high and their compression set compromises performance. They typically irreversibly deform or tear and create debris causing the pad to lose shape and become practically defunct.
Most thermal engineers have grown to accept that there are no good user experiences when it comes to TIMs. Until now. Carbice® Nanotube Technology applied to a TIM, results in Carbice Pad having the benefits of both solid and liquid TIMs but without any of the limitations.
Carbice: A No-Compromise Sustainable TIM Solution
Carbice’s first application is a sustainable Thermal Interface Material (TIM) for every thermal interface in every application that offers great thermal conductivity and low thermal resistance. It’s easy to work with and does not degrade over time & cycling.
Carbice scalably grows aligned carbon nanotube arrays bonded to both sides of an aluminium backbone. The same raw input that makes Carbice sustainable also makes the solutions very affordable. This was key to the founding vision and has now been proven by several customers using Carbice in their product manufacturing.
Carbice is AS9100D and ISO certified proving the highest quality of its manufacturing operations – the former being one of the highest aerospace and defense standards, the latter applicable across all industries. Only 0.009% of all companies worldwide are AS9100D certified, while only 4% of companies worldwide are ISO9001 certified.
Leading aerospace and defense companies, such as Blue Canyon Technolgies (a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies), are already relying on Carbice products and showing its growing importance to national security. Based on an independent cost saving analysis, Carbice has projected that if the US Department of Defense mandated the use of Carbice Space Pad for their satellite assemblies, $1.13 billion in savings or re-investment in other areas could be realized by US taxpayers over the next five years.
Jenny Young, Director of Thermal Engineering at Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) talks about her experience with Carbice: “We are very satisfied with the value Carbice brought to us. Carbice Pad was used under our radio component in one of our high watt density satellites to drop the temperature of the entire box. We used to be monitoring the temperature of the radio component from the ground nervously. In fact, now, we do not even think about it due to its effectiveness and reliability. We have seen the results for ourselves and are now flying a lot more programs with Carbice.”
Carbice® Nanotube Technology displays unprecedented characteristics that are changing the face of technology. Carbon nanotubes are among the most thermally conductive structures. Carbice aligns billions of these nanotubes to form a highway for heat to move from the hot side to the cold side. The result is unlike any solid, liquid or phase change material available.
“Thermal management can no longer be an afterthought when it comes to design – it is too expensive. Carbice delivers material, people and tools that dramatically change the design process to be better at lower cost. Carbice is truly the material for pioneers and we are helping our customers turn their dream ideas into a reality,” continues Baratunde Cola.
Carbice is the only company able to grow, apply, customise, and manufacture carbon nanotubes affordably and at scale to match the present day’s rate of technological innovation.
Sustainable Manufacturing For A Better World
Carbice is sustainable both in its production and its design. The manufacturing process of the Carbice Nanotube Pads uses recycled aluminium and waste carbon gas, hydrogen and nitrogen is made in house and all scrap material is recycled. The customer has the ability to re-work and reuse Carbice Pads with dry installation, along with the elimination of the need for TIM replacement in field service. Currently, only 17.4% of global electronic waste (e-waste) is recycled. One of the major problems is that it’s too difficult to separate valuable materials from the trash and containimants, making recycling very costly and dangerous.
Electronics built with Carbice Pad can be disassembled safely and efficiently, which will reduce the cost of e-waste recycling dramatically.
Carbice improves performance, reliability, manufacturability and consistency
Carbice’s key markets are Space, Semiconductors and Electrification (Power Electronics) which are important in exploring space’s frontiers as safely as possible, using semiconductors as the building block to modern day high-performance computing and to electrify the world with power electronics. Thermal management in the devices and products across these industries is more important than ever to ensure functionality and durability to achieve more.
Some of Carbice’s capabilities:
- More powerful images and awareness from space, to protect lives on earth
- Less pain waiting for throttling laptop computers to move
- Better ability to multitask on your cell phone without it shutting off due to overheating
- Faster data transfers when you use the cloud for time critical work
- Less pain with poor wifi signals
An all-inclusive product portfolio
Carbice is the only company able to harness the potential of carbon nanotubes at scale, affordably and tailored to customer needs through its product portfolio: Ice Pad™, Space Pad™, Contact Pad™, and Carbice® SIM as part of Carbice® Lab. Carbice SIM is a first of its kind tool developed from first principles physics and decades of data collection in hundreds of different types of real interfaces by Carbice. This is the first simulation tool the industry has ever trusted to replace TIM experiments. At the Carbice Lab, engineers will be able to simulate and test interfaces for customers based on their needs, to streamline their design process using Carbice products. Turnaround times are as little as 14 weeks from initial enquiry to finished product.
Carbice has revolutionised the advanced materials market and offers solutions across the space, power modules, and semiconductor industries as the world continues to electrify everything at a rapid rate.
Carbice enables pioneers in every industry with a new no-compromise solution that dramatically changes the thermal design process making the impossible possible.
