Creation and evaluation of compact models for thermal characterisation using dedicated optimisation software

The collaborative European project DELPHI, completed in November 1996, was concerned with the creation and experimental validation of thermal models for a range of electronic parts. Many DELPHI principles and results have been extensively discussed in open literature over the last five years (e.g. Rosten et al. 1997; Lasance et al. 1997); however, one of the topics that has not been treated in sufficient detail is the creation and evaluation or the compact models themselves. This paper tries to fill this gap. We have shown that a dedicated optimisation tool can have the potential to create models and to investigate the consequences of changing the model or the set of boundary conditions. It paves the way to thermal data-on-demand, a procedure by which a supplier provides the end-user with a model that is either suitable for all applications or tuned to a specific application, in almost real time.