Thermal digital twinning for the electronics industry

High-fidelity thermal simulation data can now be easily shared in the electronic supply chain.

This can be done while protecting semiconductor OEM’s intellectual property thanks to an innovative approach for sharing accurate thermal models of integrated circuit (IC) packages. This approach has the advantages of enhancing supply chain collaboration and accuracy of models for steady state and transient thermal analysis to enhance design studies.

Introduced in the latest updates to Simcenter Flotherm software for electronics cooling simulation from the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of industry software, the Embeddable Boundary Condition Independent Reduced Order Model (BCI-ROM) technology allows for the generation of an accurate model that can be shared for use in down-stream high-fidelity 3D thermal analysis without exposing the IC’s internal physical structure.

One user of the product, MediaTek, has taken advantage of Simcenter Flotherm to drive efficiency in its collaboration with customers. “Embeddable BCI-ROM is a great way to share our thermal models with our customers. It has several key features: easy generation, confidentiality, low error rate, and suitability for steady-state and transient applications,” said Jimmy Lin, Technical Manager, MediaTek.

Today’s electronics often have heat dissipation challenges that need to be resolved during design due to higher power density influenced by the miniaturisation of semiconductor packages and electronic systems, trends for thin-form consumer products, or demanding processing requirements. As a result, the need for more detailed thermal models to help solve thermal management design tasks is growing. Increasingly, modern IC package architectures such as 2.5D, 3D IC, or chiplet-based designs have highly complex thermal management challenges that require 3D thermal simulation both during their development and during integration of IC packages into electronics products.

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Jonathan Newell

Jonathan Newell is a graduate of Loughborough University and has three decades of experience in engineering as well as broadcast and technical journalism.

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