Rigorous model and network for static thermal problems

A compact thermal steady-state model is presented for the hot spot (junction) temperatures and contact heat flows of electronic systems with multiple thermal ports. A minimal set of independent parameters is established that allows exact model description provided that the heat conduction equation is linear and the thermal contact areas have uniform temperature distribution. Contrary to state of the art thermal resistor networks, the model parameters can be determined simply by linear fits to measured or simulated data. The use of complex non-linear fit routines is avoided. The new model can be identified with a resistor network where the power (current) input is not applied to the junction node. A general method results to determine the resistor values of a network with prescribed topology by linear fits to data.