Fast and accurate simulation of heat transfer in microarchitectures using frequency domain techniques

In this paper, a numerical method for calculating chip temperature profile, based on spatial frequency domain analysis of heat transfer, is presented. This approach takes advantage of transforming three-dimensional space domain heat transfer problems to two-dimensional problems in frequency domain. The preliminary results indicate that the present approach yields significant improvement in terms of accuracy, required memory, and computation time (e.g., by three orders of magnitude), compared to conventional space domain methods such as the finite element method. Clearly, additional rigorous and stringent tests are required to explore the pros and cons of the present approach.