Transient thermal analysis of the microprocessor system one-dimensional thermal network with power estimation equation

Abstract

This paper investigates transient temperature prediction of microprocessor hot spot by utilizing one-dimensional thermal network with average temperature nodes. Different from traditional thermal network, introduced one-dimensional thermal network in this paper consists of not only material thermal resistances and material thermal capacitances but also thermal spreading resistances and a thermal local resistance. Basic concept and construction of the thermal network are firstly introduced, one-dimensional thermal network for the microprocessor system is secondly created and transient models for heat sink fan and thermal spreading resistances are thirdly introduced to obtain sufficient temperature transient result in this paper. After that, thermal analysis is conducted with constructed one-dimensional thermal network by applying microprocessor power consumption calculated by power estimation equation which considers voltage and temperature dependency time by time. Transient thermal resistance of heat sink fan and transient thermal spreading resistances are evaluated to discuss temperature transient result. It is found that heat sink thermal resistance need to be considered to obtain more precise temperature result though obtained result has practical accuracy.