Abstract: Various aspects of the disclosed technology relate to techniques of determining an across-chip distribution of temperature generated by on-chip devices. Effective thermal conductance and effective thermal capacity for each region of a plurality of regions of a layout design are first extracted. The effective thermal conductance for a region in a metal layer is determined based at least on density information of metal interconnect lines within the region and has components associated with directions of the metal interconnect lines. A thermal circuit is then constructed based on the effective thermal conductance, the effective thermal capacity and heat information of thermal nodes. The heat information of thermal nodes is determined based on an electrical simulation on the integrated circuit associated with the layout design. A thermal simulation is then performed on the thermal circuit to determine temperature information of the thermal nodes.