A step forward in the transient thermal characterization of chips and packages

Generating compact dynamic thermal models is a key issue in the thermal cha racterization of packages. A further but related problem is the modeling of the thermal coupling between chip locations, for the use in electro-therma l circuit simulators. The paper presents a measurement based method which p rovides a way to solve both problems. A thermal benchmark chip has been des igned and realized, to facilitate thermal transient measurements. The devel oped evaluation method provides the compact thermal multiport model of the IC chip including package effects, for the accurate electro-thermal simulat ion of the ICs. The evaluation method is also suitable to generate the comp act thermal model of the package. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.