Abstract

Many applications of thin films require that these materials, which are often anisotropic, have a very high thermal conductivity as well as uniform areal properties. For diamond, the combination of a very high thermal conductivity with limited size and form of specimen presents unique measurement challenges.

A modification of the ac calorimeter method has been developed to evaluate the thermal diffusivity of such materials. Details will be provided together with examples of its use to evaluate thermal properties of different CVD diamond films having thickness from 10μm to 600μm. Results using this method will be compared with these obtained by other techniques involved in a recent international comparison.