Full-chip thermal analysis specialist Gradient Design Automation Inc., Santa Clara CA, and electronics thermal design computational fluid dynamics software provider Flomerics Group plc, Hampton Court, England, have formed a partnership to co-develop software to enable IC designers to analyze and avoid temperature-induced electrical issues at the chip level while taking into account the effects of packages and ambient conditions.
The firms say they plan to develop an integrated software package combining both companies’ products:
*Gradient’s FireBolt software chip-level thermal analysis tool that enables IC designers to predict temperature anywhere within a chip and evaluate how to improve the design with respect to timing, leakages, and reliability.
*Flomerics’ Flopack product package-level thermal analysis tool that characterizes the package surrounding the chip and automates model creation through wizard driven, intelligent geometry macros called SmartParts that produce thermal models in detailed or two-resistor and DELPHI (JEDEC-compliant) compact forms.
The products will form a complete silicon-to-environment thermal analysis approach that enables temperature-aware silicon design within the context of the surrounding environment that includes the package, PCB and chassis.
“This partnership will enable Flomerics to provide the most complete thermal analysis solution possible with a range of tools that support thermal design from the chip to the room,” Flomerics Business Development Manager Sherman Ikemoto says. “In addition, the tools are fully integrated. Data from one level can be abstracted automatically and used for design at adjacent levels which broadens the context for thermal design.”
“The complexity and circuit density of digital and mixed-signal ICs are producing extreme on-chip temperature variations,” Gradient Vice President Bob Johnson says. “If they are unknown, they’ll have to be lumped into the random on-chip variations (OCV), which are also growing ominously.”
“That and the simplistic assumption of constant die-temperature and worst-case temperature-corners are just causing the nanometer-scale chips to leave too much performance in the margins,” he adds “The product we are developing with Flomerics will enable design engineers to look at accurate temperature data, evaluate their impact, and take corrective actions before tape-out.”
Gradient provides thermal analysis software for the power-intensive and temperature-sensitive digital and mixed-signal ICs that are used in networking, wireless, communications, computer, and consumer application segments. The firm says FireBolt integrates easily into existing IC design flows, and provides a rich set of visual analysis capabilities.
Designers can have visibility into the fine-grain temperature profile throughout the design process, locate temperature hotspots, and simulate their effects on the design parameters.
Flomerics provides software enabling engineers to test virtual models of their equipment by computer simulation before building physical prototypes. The firm says its design-class analysis business model focuses on real engineering design problems within specific industries, and selects the appropriate analysis techniques to solve them as quickly and simply as possible.
