Thermal Spreading and Contact Resistance

10Introduction to Thermal Contact Resistance

Contact resistance has been an area of interest in engineering applications dating as far back as 1930. Yovanovich (2005) provides a comprehensive historical overview of the field with emphasis on the research‐intensive period spanning the early 1960s to early 2000s. Figure 10.1 presents the timeline of major activities which drove early and later research. Today, nearly all of the research in thermal contact resistance are driven by microelectronic, micro‐device, and nanoscale technologies. The early era was dominated primarily by empirical studies, while from the 1960s onwards was led by aerospace and nuclear application that provided a balance of empirical and theoretical studies with much rigorous ...