Adaptation of the thermal pulse method to the determination of thermal parameters of thin layers

As shown by DeReggi and Bauer (1995), the thermal diffusivity of a dielectric film adhered to a substrate acting as a heat sink may be determined accurately from the electret or induced electret-like thermal pulse response. Motivated by the need in microelectronics for evaluating thermal contacts, adhesion and the effects of environmental moisture, we have analyzed as generally as possible the problem of the thermally contacted film. We have shown that under a wide range of conditions met in practice with different interfacial properties, both the diffusivity and interfacial heat transfer coefficients can be determined simultaneously with the electric field distribution. We have shown by experiments on polyimide, that charge injection cannot be neglected in those cases and that, therefore, deconvolution is generally necessary