Numerical simulation of complex submicron devices with experimentally determined power maps

Both computational and experimental methods play a key role in thermal characterization, particularly in prototyping and design with each having their own set of strengths and weakness. In this work the authors demonstrate that simulation methods can provide temperature information in three spatial dimensions and in critical regions that are inaccessible to measurement tools. Combining the complementary tools of experimentation and simulation can leverage their respective strengths and create a coupled approach that is vastly more powerful than either tool alone.