Appendix A: File formats of the T3Ster software

Six types of files are associated to each measurement:

• T3STERPROJECT.PAR the parameters of the measurement
• T3STERPROJECT.RAW the unprocessed transient measurement results without any initial transient correction
• T3STERPROJECT.REC the unprocessed transient measurement results
• T3STERPROJECT.MRn intermediate results of the evaluation (1 file/channel)
• T3STERPROJECT.CXn the measured response in the frequency domain (1 file/channel)
• T3STERPROJECT.ZPn the pulse thermal resistance diagram (only for the driving point)
• T3STERPROJECT.STF the structure function (only for the driving point)

Common features of the files:

• All files are alphanumeric.
• The type of the file is shown in the header record as well.
• The second line of the files is the date and time of the instant of saving the measurement data.
• The third line is the same time/date expressed in elapsed seconds from 1^st January 1970.

The T3STERPROJECT.RAW and T3STERPROJECT.REC files

The .RAW and .REC files have the same format. The .RAW files can be later re-processed with the help of the T3Ster-Master program.

The T3STERPROJECT.PAR file

The T3STERPROJECT.MRn file

n is the channel serial number in the filename extension.

The data array is interpolated to the logarithmic time scale.

The order of the data in the data records: time [sec], response [^oC], 1^st derivative of the response [^oC/-], time-constant spectrum [^oC/W/-] (related to 1 W power-step), replica of the response with zero initial offset [^oC].

If NOTIMECON then the fourth column of the data array is zero.

The T3STERPROJECT.CXn file

The file contains the data of the complex impedance diagram. n is the channel serial number in the filename extension. The 2^nd to 5^th records are the same as in the .MRn file.

The order of the data in the data records: frequency [Hz], real and imaginary part of the complex thermal impedance, in [K/W].

The T3STERPROJECT.ZPn file

The file contains the data for the pulse thermal resistance diagram. n is the channel serial number in the filename extension.

order of the data in the data records: time [sec] and pulse thermal resistances for the enumerated duty factors, [K/W].

The T3STERPROJECT.STF file

The file contains the data of the differential and cumulative structure functions.

The order of the data in the data records: R_ladder [K/W], C_ladder [Ws/K], S R_ladder [K/W], C_ladder/R_ladder [W²s/K²], S C_ladder [Ws/K], where R_ladder and C_ladder are elements of the detailed ladder model and S denotes the cumulative values.

The MATLIB.DAT file

The material database is in the file MATLIB.DAT, located in the installation directory of the T3Ster software. It is a pure ASCII file designed to be handled only by the programs. The file format is compatible of the materials data base format of the THERMAN and SUNRED thermal simulators of MicReD. The @f and @b sequences are handled by these programs. After the heading and an empty line material data follow. Each material line contains the@f control sequence, the name of the material, the thermal conductivity and the thermal capacitance of the material. Commas separate the data fields; their position is strictly defined. This file is supposed to be used by programs, the file format is not designed for humans to handle.

Example: