Automatic Generation of Equivalent Electrothermal SPICE Netlists from 3D Electrothermal Field Models

TL;DR

This paper presents an algorithm that automatically converts 3D electrothermal field models into equivalent SPICE netlists, enabling integrated thermal-electrical circuit simulation without simplifying assumptions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method leveraging the analogy between electrothermal field problems and circuit analysis for automatic netlist generation.

Findings

Successfully generates SPICE netlists from 3D field models

Validates the approach with a chip package example

Integrates Joule heating effects into thermal circuit simulations

Abstract

Starting from a 3D electrothermal field problem discretized by the Finite Integration Technique, the equivalence to a circuit description is shown by exploiting the analogy to the Modified Nodal Analysis approach. Using this analogy, an algorithm for the automatic generation of a monolithic SPICE netlist is presented. Joule losses from the electrical circuit are included as heat sources in the thermal circuit. The thermal simulation yields nodal temperatures that influence the electrical conductivity. Apart from the used field discretization, this approach applies no further simplifications. An example 3D chip package is used to validate the algorithm.