Thermal models generator (TMG)

Summary form only given. Considering the growing need for thermal models, the authors have developed a computing process which can be executed in less than five minutes on a PC compatible. This method, based on the identification of heat flow paths inside packages, has been programmed in the C++ language. Calculation of internal thermal resistances is performed for each type of heat flow behavior (spreading, skirting, and linear propagation) identified inside the package. With a simple geometric description of the component, the software (TMG) easily provides thermal models of most common packages in a very short time. As the main purpose of thermal analysis is to provide junction temperatures for reliability forecasts, TMG uses its own models to estimate junction-to-case thermal resistance as a function of air cooling conditions. Experiments performed under different operating conditions on a wide variety of packages have shown a satisfactory agreement with simulation results