Determining Thermal Simulation Data from Transient Measurements

This paper illustrates how the information obtained from dynamic thermal measurements can be used directly for the determination of certain unknown thermal data necessary for simulation purposes. Experimental heating curves of a hybrid power amplifier are processed further to compute the time constant spectra of the thermal responses and to construct their corresponding structure functions. From these functions, the values of selected thermal model parameters, such as the heat transfer coefficient or the contact resistance are determined. Owing to this approach, it is possible to eliminate certain time consuming parameter optimization procedures.