Measuring Joule heating and strain induced by electrical current with Moiré interferometry

This study proposes a new method to locate and measure the temperature of the hot spots caused by Joule Heating by measuring the free thermal expansion in-plane strain. It is demonstrated that the hotspot caused by the Joule heating in a thin metal film/plate structure can be measured by Phase shifting Moiré interferometry with continuous wavelet transform (PSMI/CWT) at the microscopic scale. A demonstration on a copper film is conducted to verify the theory under different current densities. A correlation between the current density and strain in two orthogonal directions (one in the direction of the current flow) is proposed. The method can also be used for the measurement of the Joule heating in the microscopic solid structures in the electronic packaging devices. It is shown that a linear relationship exists between current density squared and normal strains. VC 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3565045]