Short Course

Fundamentals of Thermal and Thermomechanical Modeling for Electronics Reliability

Reliability of electronics is a multidisciplinary topic involving thermal, electrical, and mechanical disciplines. Ongoing trends in society (energy transition, electrification of transport, developments in AI) lead to higher energy density in electronic components and, at the same time, larger impact of electronics failures, making electronics reliability increasingly important. The short course provides the necessary background to understand more about thermal and thermo-mechanical phenomena in (package) reliability for non-mechanical researchers engaged in using thermal and thermo-mechanical computer simulations with the aim to avoid modeling and interpretation difficulties.

The short course is 9:00–17:30 on September 23, 2025. Coffee breaks, pizza lunch, and a course book are included in the price.

Study credits for Ph.D. students can be earned by passing a final test.

Trainers: Wendy Luiten & John H. J. Janssen

Wendy Luiten is Electronics Cooling Expert and Design for Six Sigma Master Black Belt with 30+ years of experience. She provides consultancy and develops and delivers Thermal and DfSS training programs for various companies in the High-Tech industry, and lectures at the High-Tech Institute of Eindhoven. Previously she was Senior Thermal specialist at Philips Research Eindhoven. She authored over 30 papers and holds 6 patents and pending patents. She received the THERMI Award for ‘Significant Contributions to Semiconductor Thermal Management’ in 2024, Philips Research Outstanding Achievement Award in 2015, the Harvey Rosten Award for Excellence in 2014, and the Best Paper Award at SEMI-THERM 2002. She is a member of the THERMINIC steering board, of the program committee of both THERMINIC and SEMI-THERM conferences, and was program co-chair for THERMINIC 2017.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-luiten-a3b5173/

 

John H. J. Janssen is a Technical Director specialized in packaging development and characterization in NXP’s packaging department with 25+ years of experience in this field. He was Philips Semiconductors manager for SEED and PROFIT projects (IST). He was Philips Semiconductors member in the MEVIPRO (GROWTH) project. He was NXP’s member in NANOINTERFACE (STREP) project. In 2003 he was honored with the Harvey Rosten Award for Excellence for his outstanding work in the field of thermal analysis of electronic equipment. He is a member of the JEDEC JC-15 committee. He is a member of the THERMINIC steering board, was program chair of THERMINIC 2017, vice general chair of THERMINIC 2018 and general chair of THERMINIC 2020.

Course Syllabus

The short course will cover the following topics:

  1. Introduction: New thermal challenges
  2. Thermal fundamentals
    1. Heat and temperature
    2. Thermal Ohm’s law, conduction resistance, surface (convection, radiation) resistance
    3. Transient heat transfer: lumped heating, RC time, heat penetration
    4. Periodic heat transfer, thermal skin effect
  3. (Thermo)-mechanical fundamentals
    1. Stress and strain
    2. 1-D: axial elongation, transverse contraction, shear
    3. Bending
    4. Thermal expansion, thermal stress
    5. 1-D vs 3-D
    6. Translation of 3-D to 1-D test results
    7. Mechanical failure
  4. Similarities and differences between thermal/(thermo)-mechanical, and electrical domains
  5. Effect of time
    1. Thermal skin effect vs power cycling
    2. Mission profiles (acceleration factors for accelerated life testing)
  6. Examples