Evaluation of short pulse and short time thermal transient measurements

Abstract

Thermal transient recording and the time constant spectrum analysis are widely used methods in the thermal testing and qualification of IC packages. A limitation of these methods is that recording of the complete transient response requires long time. This limitation, however, can be overcome by sophisticated procedures. The first method is to apply short power pulse for excitation; the second one is the interruption of the transients long before the thermal equilibrium is reached. The paper offers algorithms to evaluate these short pulse and short time measurements. The presented methods are suitable if the extraction of the little time constants is needed. This is the case if the transient method is used e.g. for die attach quality checking.