New way for thermal transient testing [IC packaging]

This paper introduces a new concept of thermal transient measurement of IC packages without a tester. The thermal transient test kit described here consists of a test chip, dedicated software running on a PC and a special cable connecting the PC to the IC package which encapsulates the test chip. The functionality of the thermal transient test equipment is realized by the test chip itself and the measurement software. The software performs both the control of the measurement and the results evaluation. The final output of the evaluation software is a compact model network and the structure function, describing the properties of the heat conduction path realised by the IC package under test. The use of the test kit and the capabilities of its evaluation software are demonstrated by a few examples.