How It Works
What is Indigo Xtreme™
Indigo Xtreme™ is an Engineered Thermal Interface (ETI) that fits neatly between a CPU lid and heat sink (or waterblock) to keep CPUs cooler. Unlike greases, metallic thermal interface pads or liquid metal alloys, Indigo Xtreme™ is a self-contained and sealed structure, deploying a Phase Change Metallic Alloy (PCMA) which reflows and fills surface asperities on the CPU lid and heat sink. The resultant interfacial layer is void-free and robust, with low thermal contact and bulk resistance.
How Indigo Xtreme™ Works
The overall thermal performance of a thermal interface is the sum of the bulk thermal resistance (which is the inverse of bulk thermal conductance) of the material and its two surface contact resistances (on both the CPU lid and heat sink). Greases have good surface wetting properties and therefore they exhibit low contact resistance; however, they have high bulk thermal resistances. Metallic pads possess low bulk thermal resistances, but surface oxidation limits their surface wetting ability, resulting in higher contact resistance.
Indigo Xtreme™ achieves high thermal performance through the optimized deployment of molten, oxide-free PCMA, thereby yielding low contact resistance and low bulk resistance.
At the heart of the one-of-a-kind Indigo Xtreme™ ETI is a proven PCMA deployment structure. When heated (see Installation Guide), the sealed deployment structure directs flowing PCMA into CPU lid and heat sink micro-surface asperities while flushing out entrapped air. The asperity filling PCMA creates a corrosion-resistant hermetic (airtight) seal between the lid and heat sink, resulting in long-term reliability.
How to Use Indigo Xtreme™
The Indigo Xtreme™ ETI is offered as part of an Engineered Thermal Interface Kit. This kit includes several cleanroom-grade surface cleaning products to ensure the highest quality deployment possible. Once the CPU lid and heat sink surfaces have been prepared, the ETI is aligned to the lid and held in place with its own adhesive layer. Following the bolting of the heat sink to the motherboard, the ETI may be reflowed by simply running the CPU under load as seen in the Installation Guide.
High performance thermal management solutions (heat pipes, liquid cooling, etc) can be
limited by the thermal interface material.
Indigo Xtreme™ is the first engineered thermal interface that
delivers a void-free, all metal thermal pathway at the critical junction between the processor lid and the
primary thermal management hardware.
Indigo Xtreme™ on Intel Core™ 2 Duo Processor
Prior to reflow:
After reflow:
The revolutionary Indigo "flow-in-place" technology deploys, controls and contains the phase change metal alloy during reflow to create an optimized, void-free thermal interface that is unsurpassed in performance and reliability.