MEASURING THE THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF THIN FILMS: 3 OMEGA AND RELATED ELECTROTHERMAL METHODS
Abstract
This review describes the major electrothermal methods for measuring the thermal conductivity of thin films in both cross-plane and in-plane directions. These methods use microfabricated metal lines for joule heating and resistance thermometry. The 3ω method for crossplane measurements is described thoroughly, along with a related DC method. For in-plane measurements, several methods are presented for suspended and supported films. Various practical matters are also discussed, including parasitic thermal resistances, background subtraction, and instrumentation issues. The review contains sufficient detail to be accessible to researchers new to the field of thin film thermal conductivity measurements, and also includes information relevant for 3ω measurements of bulk substrates. The review also contains new analytical results for the variable-linewidth 3ω method, the related heat spreader method, and the distinction between isothermal and constant flux heater approximations.
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Transient methods (transient hot wire, transient plane source, laser flash, 3-ω, transient thermoreflectance) provide higher throughput of measurement with advantages: easier application to small millimeter-sized samples, relatively short measurement time, and smaller unwanted heat loss due to controllable thermal penetration depth.
“In comparison, transient methods such as the transient hot wire (ASTM C518), transient plane source, 3 the laser flash method, 4 the 3-ω method, 5, 6 and the transient thermoreflectance methods 7, 8 provide higher throughput of measurement with several advantages.”
From Analysis and improvement of the hot disk transient plane source method for low thermal conductivity materials (2020) · cites this paper as [6]
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Zheng, Q., Kaur, S., Dames, C., & Prasher, R. S. (2020) · International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer · doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2020.119331 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Self-citationJiang, P., Huang, B., & Koh, Y. K. (2016) · Review of Scientific Instruments · doi:10.1063/1.4954969 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
- Authors
- Dames, C.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dames, Chris
- ORCID
- Dames, Chris
- Venue
- Annual Review of Heat Transfer
- Publisher
- Begell House
- Published
- 2013
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 7-49
- ISSN
- 1049-0787 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2332287436
- Cited by
- 206
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 3.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annual Reviews of Heat Transfer (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Thermal properties of materials
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Computational Mechanics › Heat Transfer and Numerical Methods
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanics of Materials › Thermography and Photoacoustic Techniques
- Keywords
- thin film thermal conductivity, 3ω method, through-plane thermal conductivity, in-plane thermal conductivity, Joule heating, resistance thermometry, suspended films, supported films, background subtraction
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