As electronic architectures shift from component-level cooling to integrated system-level design, managing extreme heat flux has become the ultimate bottleneck for high-performance computing. In this exclusive interview, Claudia Elizabeth Figueroa, Global General Manager – Thermal and Assembly Solutions at Solstice Advanced Materials, discusses how the company is redefining thermal pathways across AI infrastructure, automotive ADAS and advanced semiconductor packaging.
Thermal management is evolving from a component-level challenge to a complete system-level design consideration. How is Solstice approaching the development of advanced thermal stacks, including thermal interface materials and heat-spreading solutions to address the increasing demands of AI, automotive, and next-generation electronic devices?
Figueroa: As electronic devices become more powerful and compact, with higher heat flux, managing heat is becoming increasingly complex. The challenge is no longer just about transferring heat away from a chip, it is about designing an optimized thermal stack where every layer works together to efficiently move, spread, and dissipate heat.
At Solstice Advanced Materials, we take a system-level approach to thermal management by combining advanced materials science with application expertise. Our thermal interface solutions including phase change material, gap pads, and hybrid gels are designed to minimize thermal resistance at critical interfaces, ensuring efficient heat transfer from the semiconductor device. However, transferring heat is only one part of the challenge. Once heat leaves the chip, it must be effectively distributed and managed across the thermal architecture.
This is where solutions such as advanced heat spreaders become increasingly important. As AI processors, advanced semiconductor packages, and high-performance computing devices generate higher localized heat flux, heat spreaders help distribute thermal energy more uniformly, reducing hotspots and enabling more effective cooling. When combined with high-performance thermal interface materials, they create a more efficient thermal pathway from the chip to the cooling system.
Our focus is on developing solutions that address the entire thermal journey from the device interface through heat spreading and ultimately to heat dissipation. This integrated approach helps customers achieve sustained performance, improved reliability, and longer operating life in demanding applications such as AI infrastructure, automotive electronics, and next-generation computing platforms.
The future of thermal management will require collaboration across the ecosystem, where materials, packaging, and system design come together to solve increasingly complex thermal challenges.
Solstice’s PTM7950 phase change material has become incredibly popular in the electronics industry. Why is PTM7950 considered the preferred thermal interface material (TIM) for a wide range of applications, and which thermal challenges does it address more effectively than traditional thermal greases or pads?
Figueroa: Today’s processors operate at higher clock speeds, greater power densities, and generate extreme heat flux, leaving virtually no margin for thermal compromise. Under these conditions, conventional thermal greases can suffer from pump-out, bleed-out, or dry-out over time, while traditional pads often struggle to achieve the low thermal resistance needed for next-generation devices.
Solstice PTM7950 specifically addresses these challenges. Based on a proprietary polymer phase change material (PCM) system, it softens at operating temperature to conform to microscopic surface irregularities, resulting in a bond line and an efficient thermal pathway between the semiconductor package and the cooling solution. The result is exceptionally low thermal resistance, superior wetting characteristics, and highly efficient heat transfer from chip to heat sink.
What has truly differentiated Solstice PTM7950 is that it combines outstanding thermal performance with long-term reliability. The material is silicone-free, eliminating concerns around pump-out, bleed-out, and dry-out, while maintaining consistently low thermal impedance even after prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures and extensive thermal cycling. That combination of sustained thermal performance and proven durability has made it a trusted solution across AI accelerators, GPUs, high-performance CPUs, enterprise servers, automotive power electronics, and advanced consumer electronics.
As processor power continues to increase, the industry is recognizing that thermal interface materials are no longer commodities—they are critical enablers of system performance. By reducing thermal resistance at one of the most important interfaces in the thermal path, PTM7950 helps processors sustain higher performance, minimize thermal throttling, improve energy efficiency, and extend device lifetime. Those are the reasons it has become one of the industry’s most widely adopted phase change thermal interface materials.
With Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) becoming standard in everyday electric vehicles, what intense thermal bottlenecks are automotive engineers facing, and how does Solstice solve them?
Figueroa: The thermal challenge in ADAS has changed dramatically over the past few years. As the industry moves from distributed electronic control units to centralized, AI-powered vehicle compute platforms, we’re seeing data center-class processing power being integrated into compact automotive environments. That creates unprecedented heat densities in systems that must operate reliably under extreme temperatures, vibration, humidity, and continuous thermal cycling over a vehicle’s lifetime.
The challenge is no longer simply removing heat—it’s creating an efficient thermal pathway from the silicon die all the way to the cooling system while maintaining automotive-grade reliability. Without an optimized thermal architecture, higher junction temperatures can lead to thermal throttling, accelerated component aging, and ultimately reduced system reliability.
At Solstice, we take a system-level approach to thermal management. Rather than viewing the thermal interface material as a standalone product, we work with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to engineer the complete thermal stack—from our phase change material at the chip interface to customized heat spreaders and highly conformable TIMs that connect to the cold plate. This integrated approach minimizes thermal resistance, lowers junction temperatures, and enables ADAS processors to deliver sustained computing performance while meeting the rigorous reliability requirements expected for automotive electronics. As vehicles continue to evolve into software-defined platforms, thermal management will increasingly become a key enabler of safety, intelligence, and long-term reliability—not just cooling.
Beyond automotive, the explosion of AI is putting immense strain on hardware. How do Solstice’s specialized materials help high-performance AI chips in data centers run faster and more reliably?
Figueroa: AI workloads are fundamentally changing thermal design requirements. Today’s AI accelerators and GPUs operate at significantly higher power levels than previous generations, creating localized hot spots that can limit performance if heat is not removed efficiently.
High-performance thermal interface materials play a critical role by minimizing thermal resistance between the semiconductor package and the cooling solution. Better heat transfer allows processors to sustain higher operating frequencies, reduces thermal throttling, and improves overall system reliability.
At Solstice, we are developing materials that not only deliver exceptional thermal performance but also maintain that performance over extended operating lifetimes. As AI infrastructure continues to scale, every degree of temperature reduction can translate into improved computational efficiency, lower cooling energy consumption, and increased hardware longevity, making thermal interface materials an essential part of the overall system architecture.
Looking forward, how is Solstice expanding its technology portfolio to handle the next generation of delicate or uniquely shaped high-power electronics across consumer, telecom and industrial sectors?
Electronic devices are becoming thinner, more densely integrated, and increasingly diverse in form factor. At the same time, chip architectures such as chiplets, heterogeneous integration, and advanced packaging are creating entirely new thermal management challenges.
Our innovation strategy is focused on developing materials that combine strong thermal performance with the mechanical compliance and processability customers need for increasingly complex device designs. As electronics become thinner, more densely integrated and more varied in form factor, thermal materials must transfer heat efficiently without placing excessive stress on delicate components. Looking ahead, success will depend not only on higher-performing materials, but also on close collaboration across the semiconductor ecosystem to address future power densities, new package architectures and evolving cooling technologies.
About Soltice. Solstice Advanced Materials delivers premium, differentiated solutions developed in close collaboration with and proximity to our more than 3,000 customers worldwide.