AN EFFICIENT THERMAL SIMULATION TOOL FOR ICS, MICROSYSTEM ELEMENTS AND MCMS - THE MU-S-THERMANAL

Integrated microsystems raise new problems in thermal simulation. The frequently used structures such as cantilevers and membranes have diff erent heat transfer properties than the simple silicon cubes of conven tional integrated circuits (ICs). To take advantage of this, numerous functions are realized on these structures based on the thermal princi ple. Quick and correct thermal simulation of these structures is neede d during the design process. The paper presents the mu S-THERMANAL the rmal simulation tool which is capable of simulating, beyond the IC chi ps and three-dimensional multi-chip module packaging structures, the c antilever, the bridge and the membrane structures as well, both in ste ady-state and in the frequency-domain case. The algorithms of the prog ram, based on the Fourier method, are detailed in the paper and numero us examples illustrate the capabilities of the tool. (C) 1998 Publishe d by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.