Modeling and visualization of conductive temperature fields inside electronic component structures

Summary form only given, as follows. A general numerical code is reported which simulates the heat transfer inside microelectronic components for different environmental conditions. A two-dimensional scheme was implemented with control-volume techniques to solve the transient heat conduction equation in a heterogeneous and orthotropic rectangular domain. Inside this domain, the geometry of a given component section can be taken into account through a discretized rectangular grid. All parameters such as the heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and heat sources can be nodal-point-dependent and possibly varying with temperature or time. The method has been used to model cases for which great variations of thermal characteristics exist. Two types of boundary conditions can be introduced. The traditional external conditions can be expressed in terms of heat transfer coefficients and temperatures, while various internal heat transfer coefficients are used to simulate contact thermal resistances at the interfaces of different materials such as soldered joints or die-attaches.<>