Theory and Practice of Thermal Transient Testing of Electronic Components

Contents
Chapter 1: Why Was Written and How to Read This Book
Chapter 2: Theoretical Background of Thermal Transient Measurements
2.1 Temperature and Heat Transfer
2.2 Thermal Equilibrium, Steady State, and Thermal Transients
2.3 Thermal Processes and Their Modeling in Electronic Systems
2.3.1 Equivalent Linear Models
2.3.2 Energy Balance and Stability
2.3.3 Heating and Cooling Curves
2.3.4 Zth Curves
2.4 System Properties Calculated from the Thermal Transient
2.4.1 Time Constant Spectra
2.4.2 The Structure Functions
2.4.3 The Local Thermal Resistance Function
2.5 Heat-Spreading Patterns in Regular Geometries and Their Appearance in the Structure Functions
2.6 The Concept of the Heat Transfer Coefficient
2.7 Driving Point and Transfer Impedances: Self-Heating and Transfer Heating
2.8 System Descriptors for Periodic Excitations
2.8.1 Complex Loci
2.8.2 Pulse Thermal Resistance Diagrams
2.9 Relationship Among the Different Representations of Thermal Impedances
2.10 Distributed Heat Transfer on a Surface Towards a Convective Environment
2.11 Temporary Heat Storage in the Cooling Mount
2.12 The Limits of the Linearity Assumption
2.12.1 The Most Common Nonlinearities: Temperature-Dependent Material Parameters
2.12.2 Measurement Artifacts Appearing as Nonlinearities
2.12.3 Limits of the Validity of the Linear Approach in Actual Measurement Results
Chapter 3: Thermal Metrics
3.1 Standard Thermal Metrics for Single Die Packages
3.1.1 A Few Thoughts on the Thermal Resistance in Relation to Deriving Standard Thermal Metrics
3.1.2 The Concept of the Junction-to-Ambient and the Junction-to-Case Thermal Resistances
3.1.3 The Concept of Thermal Characterization Parameters
3.1.4 The Standard Thermal Metric of Single Die Packages with Exposed Cooling Surface: RthJC
3.1.5 Spatial Temperature Difference Replaced by the Temporal Difference of the Junction Temperature
3.2 Thermal Metrics of Multi-Die Packages
3.3 Other Standards for Deriving Simple Thermal Metrics
3.4 Brief Overview of Thermal Measurement Standards
3.5 Problems of Using Standardized Thermal Metrics as Simple Thermal Models
3.5.1 Two-Point RthJC Measurement in Steady State
3.5.2 Determination of RthJC with the Transient Dual Thermal Interface Method
3.5.3 Dynamic Temperature Change at the Monitoring Points of the Two-Point Method
3.5.4 Interpretation of Thermal Metrics on Short Transients
Chapter 4: Temperature-Dependent Electrical Characteristics of Semiconductor Devices
4.1 Basic Laws of Solid-State Physics
4.1.1 Band Structure of Semiconductors, Electrons, and Holes
4.1.2 The Concentration of Charge Carriers and Their Motion in Semiconductors
4.1.3 The pn Junction
4.2 Resistive Heaters and Sensors, Active Devices
4.3 Diodes
4.3.1 Differential Properties of the Diode Characteristics
4.3.2 Negative and Positive Thermal Coefficients in the Diode Characteristics
4.3.3 Electrothermal Model of a Diode
4.4 MOS Transistors
4.5 Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) Devices
4.6 Semiconductor Devices on Wide Bandgap Materials
4.7 High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) Devices
Chapter 5: Fundamentals of Thermal Transient Measurements
5.1 Tester Instrumentation and the Environment
5.2 The Interaction of the Components in a Complete Test System
5.3 Device Under Test Categories and the Related Electrical Arrangement
5.3.1 Devices with Separate Heaters and Sensors
5.3.2 Two-Pin Devices, Diodes
5.3.3 Discrete Devices with Three or More Pins
5.3.4 Modules with Multiple Active Devices
5.4 Thermal Transient Measurement of Two-Pin Devices
5.4.1 Continuous Cooling Measurements
5.4.2 Continuous Heating Measurements
5.4.3 Pulsed Measurements
5.5 Measurement of Three-Pin Devices
5.5.1 Current Jump Measurement of Three-Pin Devices
5.5.2 Voltage Jump Measurements of Three-Pin Devices
5.6 The Voltage to Temperature Calibration Process
5.6.1 The Temperature-Sensitive Parameter
5.6.2 Calibration on a Cold Plate
5.6.3 Calibration in a Closed Chamber or Bath
5.7 Noise and Immunity in the Thermal Measurements
Chapter 6: Thermal Transient Measurements on Various Electronic Components
6.1 Measurement of Diodes
6.1.1 Characteristics of the pn junction, Setting an Operation Point and Applying a Power Step
6.1.2 Electrical and Thermal Stability of Diodes in Transient Processes
6.1.3 Test Scheme, Measurement of a Discrete Device
6.1.4 Evaluation of the Measurement Results of a Discrete Device with Different Early Transient Correction Concepts
6.1.5 Measurement of Diodes in Power Modules
6.1.6 Determining the Optimal Current Levels and the Timing for the Thermal Transient Test
6.1.7 The Impact of Resistive Wiring Segments on Thermal Transients
6.1.8 Finding the Valid Heating and Sensing Current Magnitudes
6.2 Measurement of MOS Devices
6.2.1 Powering and Temperature Sensing Options of MOS Devices
6.2.2 Safe Operation Limits Affecting the Thermal Measurement
6.2.3 Measurement of MOS Modules
6.3 Measurement of Bipolar Transistors
6.3.1 Electrical and Thermal Stability of the Measurement
6.4 Programmed Powering
6.5 Measurement of IGBT Devices
6.5.1 Powering an IGBT
6.6 Measurement of Thyristors (SCR) Devices
6.7 Resistors
6.8 Capacitors
6.9 Devices Made of Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Materials
6.9.1 Measuring Silicon Carbide Devices
6.9.2 Measuring Gallium Nitride Devices
6.10 Measurement of LED Devices
6.10.1 Introduction to LED Thermal Testing
6.10.2 Recommended Simple Thermal Metrics for Single Die LED Packages
6.10.3 Using the Electrical Test Method for LEDs
6.10.4 Combined Thermal and Photometric/Radiometric Measurements
6.10.5 Calibration of the Temperature-Sensitive Parameter of LEDs
6.10.6 The Junction Temperature of LEDs
6.10.7 Some Recommendations on LED Test Data Reporting
6.10.8 In-Line Testing of LED Devices with Short Pulses
6.11 Measurement of Integrated Circuits
6.11.1 Measurement of Large Processor Chips
6.11.2 Measurement of Operational Amplifiers and Voltage Stabilizers
6.11.3 Measurement of Multichip Modules
Chapter 7: The Use of Thermal Transient Testing
7.1 Thermal Qualification and Structure Identification, Use of the TDIM Method
7.2 Quality Testing by Finding Sample Differences with the Help of the Local Thermal Resistance Function
7.3 Structural Integrity Testing, TIM Testing
7.4 Reliability Testing, Ageing Monitoring
7.4.1 Active Power Cycling Combined with Thermal Transient Testing
7.5 Determining Thermal Material Parameters
7.5.1 Determining Thermal Data Directly from the Structure Functions
7.5.2 Measuring Bulk Thermal Conductivity of TIM Materials
7.6 3D Thermal Model Calibration for Simulations
7.7 Deriving Compact Models from Measured Data for Various Purposes
7.7.1 Simple Models Enabling Fast 1D Heat Flow Calculations
7.7.2 Boundary Condition Independent Model Generation with the Help of Transient Measurements
7.7.3 Derivation of Boundary Condition Independent Models and Thermal Metrics by Measurements at Different Thermal Boundaries
Chapter 8: On the Accuracy and Repeatability of Thermal Transient Measurements
8.1 Introduction to the Concept of Measurement Uncertainty
8.2 Common Factors of Measurement Uncertainty
8.2.1 Measurement Process Selection
8.2.2 Measurement Error/Accuracy
8.3 Factors in the Uncertainty of Thermal Transient Measurements
8.3.1 The Transient Behavior of the Tested Electronic Devices
8.3.2 Effects of the Test Equipment
8.3.3 Reproducibility Issues of the Test Environment
8.3.4 Uncertainty from the TSP Calibration of the Samples
8.4 Uncertainty Issues Related to the Data Processing
8.4.1 Possible Uncertainty Related to the Initial Transient Correction
8.4.2 Properties of the Deconvolution Algorithms
8.5 Final Remarks
References
Books and Book Chapters, Data Compendiums
Related Measurement Standards and Guidelines
Test Equipment Descriptions and Software Handbooks
Journal and Conference Papers
Index