Algorithmic Approach for Thermal Port Definition

An algorithmic technique is presented that allows estimation of maximum temperature rise in a thermal model with component-board thermal interaction. The technique is based on a generalized thermal port grouping to estimate the interface temperature profile derived from coarse port assignments. By using a very simple environment, it takes a library-type thermal component model with many thermal ports included and transforms it by grouping thermal ports based on a temperature profile, allowing a minimal number of port groups to provide the same accuracy as the original model in a shorter time. The usefulness of this technique is illustrated through simulation of two thermal models with extreme nonuniform temperature distribution on the interface surface. The prediction accuracy is evaluated by comparison with the final solutions to numerical simulation.