Solderless flexible thermal links

Flexible thermal links, often important components in the thermal management of cryogenically cooled instruments, are usually made by soldering bundles of copper braid to rigid end pieces. In addition to being time consuming and requiring a highly skilled and well-practised technician, the soldering process has inherent disadvantages. The solder tends to wick around each individual wire in the braids, imposing both additional rigidity and thermal impedance. Solder can also present potential outgassing problems. The authors have developed a simple solderless process for securely attaching a flexible braid to solid end blocks in such a manner as to dramatically reduce thermal impedance at the interface between the braid and the block and also to maintain full flexibility of the braid.