US Patent 7416019 - CNT thermal interface with >50% packing ratio

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7416019.html

This patent from Johns Hopkins University teaches a high density multiwall carbon nanotube array forming a high efficiency thermal interface useful for integrated circuit cooling. Claim 1 reads:

1. A thermal interface comprising:

a first structure for making thermal contact with a second, different structure; and

a plurality of substantively aligned carbon nanotubes protruding substantively perpendicularly from a first surface of the first structure to improve thermal contact with the second structure, wherein a nanotube packing ratio is the quotient of the sum of cross section areas of carbon nanotubes in the plurality of carbon nanotubes divided by the area of the first surface of the first structure covered by the carbon nanotubes, and the nanotube packing ratio is greater than fifty percent.