Thermal dynamics and the time constant domain

The time-constant spectrum representation is a useful description of the dynamic thermal behavior of packages, assemblies and microsystems. After presenting the idea of the time constant spectrum representation of microelectronic structures, the paper provides an algorithm that can be used for time constant spectrum calculation in thermal simulator programs. The obtained time-constant spectrum can be the basis of calculating the transient behavior pulse thermal resistance diagrams, and structure reconstruction. All these applications are presented in the paper with examples.