| Title |
Development of High-Strength and High-Conductivity Cu-Cr Alloy Shield-Cans for Enhanced Thermal Management in Smartphones |
| DOI |
https://doi.org/10.3365/KJMM.2026.64.7.585 |
| ISSN |
1738-8228(ISSN), 2288-8241(eISSN) |
| Keywords |
Cu-Cr alloy; Thermal management; Precipitation strengthening; Shield-can |
| Abstract |
As mobile devices evolve toward miniaturization and high performance, thermal management of application processors (AP) has emerged as a critical challenge to ensure sustained peak performance. However, severe physical space constraints in modern devices limit introduction of additional cooling components. To overcome this, our study proposes replacing conventional shield-can materials with a high thermal conductivity alloy. Conventional Cu-Ni-Zn alloys, despite their favorable mechanical strength and formability, have low thermal conductivity (30W/mK), which result in very low heat dissipation and accelerated thermal throttling. To achieve both high mechanical strength and superior thermal conductivity, a Cu-Cr based alloy was implemented to fabricate the shield-can. Experimental results from a real smartphone implementation demonstrate that the Cu-Cr shield-cans effectively reduce both internal AP and surface temperatures of the smartphone compared to it fabricated with conventional Cu-Ni-Zn alloys, leading to a significant enhancement in benchmark scores. Furthermore, this study validates that the selective application of high thermal conductivity materials in shield-cans improves the front-to-back thermal uniformity. This approach effectively prevents system performance degradation and addresses user concerns by mitigating localized heat concentration. Notably, this work proposes a strategic design paradigm that enables the control of heat flux directionality based on the specific thermal requirements and structural configurations of the device. These findings highlight the significant potential of Cu-Cr based alloys as one of the most effective thermal management in next generation high performance electronic devices. |