Extraction of heat transfer macromodels for MEMS devices

A model order reduction (MOR) technique for heat-transfer system-level modeling is presented. A heat transfer solver using the finite difference method (FDM), which is appropriate for MEMS thermal analysis, is implemented. The numerical models generated by the FDM solver then were successfully reduced into low-order compact models by an Arnoldi-based model-order-reduction technique. The compact macromodels can be easily inserted into system-level or circuit simulators. We also demonstrated that the macromodel results for a thermal actuator are in good agreement with the experimental results.