Patent ID: 7748440

Claim:
A thermal interface comprising: a first plate comprising: a patterned surface comprising: square-shaped protrusions covering more than sixty-five percent of a total area of the patterned surface, wherein surfaces of said protrusions are formed from a thermally conductive material; a plurality of first grooves dividing the protrusions into arrays; a plurality of second grooves dividing the arrays into sub-arrays, said sub-arrays comprising inner sub-arrays and outer sub-arrays; wherein the second grooves are connected to a first groove for bounding the inner sub-arrays; wherein the second grooves are connected to a border of the patterned surface for bounding the outermost sub-arrays; wherein the first grooves exhibit a larger effective hydrodynamic radius than the second grooves by having a greater depth than the second grooves; wherein surfaces of the protrusions exhibit a high aspect ratio to increase capillary pressure; and wherein a pattern of the arrays comprises a nested hierarchic groove structure, wherein the sub arrays are N times smaller than the arrays and the arrays are N times smaller in than a surface of the first plate; and a pre-determined amount of fluid material introduced onto the patterned surface, wherein a volume of the fluid material that is introduced is less than the volume of the first and second grooves to provide a capillary force of the fluid material between the first plate and a second plate when the first plate is placed into integral contact with the second plate.