Materials Browser

This item of the Plot menu is available only if the active function plot window contains a cumulative or a differential structure function.

Once selected, a small browser with names of structural materials common in the electronics/microelectronics industry is shown as illustrated in Figure 5-30. The materials are taken from a small materials data base. After having selected a material,

• in case of a differential structure function the cross-sectional area of the heat-flow path is displayed in front of the cursor coordinates – assuming the selected material as structural material, see Figure 5-31a,
• while in case of a cumulative structure function the volume of the given material region is shown, see Figure 5-31b.

For the background of estimation of geometrical dimensions reefer to section 7.6.

The materials data base used is in a file called matlib.dat, located in the program folder of the T3Ster software. This is a pure ASCII file that can be easily extended with new material entries. For the format of this file, refer to Appendix A.

Figure 5-30: The Materials Browser window.

 a)
 b)
Figure 5-31: Estimation of geometrical dimensions a) cross-sectional area of an MCM module read, assuming Al₂O₃ as structural material b) volume of a chip assuming silicon as structural material