Asymptotic thermal analysis of electronic packages and printed-circuit boards

The electric thermal network analogy method is widely used to study thermal behavior of electronic components. This analogy usually leads to a large resistance-capacitance (RC) network. Conventional simulation techniques of these networks require substantial computational resources. This paper presents a new solution technique based on a recently developed asymptotic waveform evaluation (AWE) concept which has been successfully used for transient simulation of large electrical networks. Application of AWE to time dependent thermal analysis of printed circuit boards often results in two orders of magnitude speed-up over current iterative techniques, yet retaining comparable accuracy.