System Analysis Knowledge Bytes - Early System-Level Thermal Analysis

15 Jun 2024 • 3 minute read

The System Analysis Knowledge Bytes blog series explores the capabilities and potential of the System Analysis tools offered by Cadence. In addition to providing insight into the useful features and enhancements in this area, this series aims to broadcast the views of different bloggers and experts who share their knowledge and experience on all things related to System Analysis.

With increasingly complex and compact packaging on the rise, thermal effects have become more critical than ever. Designs can include multiple power-dissipating components within small, high-density volumes, making it necessary to ensure that overheating does not occur. Poor heat exchange in package design can result in structural warpage and electrothermal effects, which lead to increased system resistance, both of which limit the total achievable power consumption. For these reasons, it is incredibly useful to run early-stage thermal feasibility testing.

With Celsius Solid Objects Simulations for 3D Structures (Celsius 3D), engineers can create block-level CAD models of their packages directly in Celsius. Once the model is created, thermal simulations can be run from the same GUI with minimal setup. The main benefit of this approach is the elimination of the need for detailed package or IC specifications. The only requirements for running this flow are a mechanical block-level model, the anticipated power dissipations of select objects, and thermal boundary conditions. No other Cadence tools are necessary for this flow.

Creating a CAD Model

The initial step in this early thermal feasibility flow is the creation of the physical model itself. Celsius 3D offers many built-in CAD functions that allow users to create basic geometries such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones, etc. Additionally, several packaging-specific shapes, such as wirebonds and solder balls, are available for use. Users can use these pre-defined geometries as the building blocks for their packaging design. Once the model is created, materials (either pre-existing or custom-defined) can be assigned to each object.

Assigning Thermal Analysis Property

Thermal components can either be treated as block heaters that dissipate power from the entire solid or use a 2D power region approach, where only a small surface area of the thermal object dissipates power. Each simulation requires at least one component to be designated as a power dissipator and a thermal boundary condition to be defined.

Running the Simulation

Running a thermal simulation returns a variety of result views, including tables with maximum temperature readings, thermal field plots, and other field plot viewing tools that allow users to view cross-sections, vector gradients, and details of the thermal field plots. This is useful for making initial hypotheses about the thermal feasibility of new designs.

The detailed RAK can be read at: Celsius Direct CAD Entry for Early System-Level Thermal Analysis (cadence.com) authored by Liliko Uchida.

For an in-depth understanding of Celsius Thermal Solver, enroll in our free online training, Celsius Thermal Solver.

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Stay with us as we continue to explore what’s new in the world of Cadence Sigrity and Systems Analysis. For information about the most recent enhancements, check the Sigrity and Systems Analysis 2024.0 What's New. Happy reading!