Thermal networks for electro-thermal analysis of power devices

This work presents a derivation of the equivalent thermal network associated to the distributed heat diffusion process which takes place in an electrical circuit. Precise definition of temperature and dissipated power density for the elementary electrical element are presented. It is shown that these definitions lead to an equivalent thermal network that preserves the physical properties of the original distributed phenomenon. Using these results an accurate electro-thermal network model of a power DMOS is derived. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.