MENU

Thermal simulation software update increases speed and accuracy

Thermal simulation software update increases speed and accuracy

New Products |
By Jean-Pierre Joosting



Future Facilities presents its tool as uniquely targeted to the electronics design task. Whereas other approaches have applied a generalised computational fluid dynamics analysis to the task, 6SigmaET is totally focussed on electronics, its writers say. It works classes of objects that represent the building blocks of an electronics system; components, PCBs, enclosures and so on. These objects are modelled with attributes and an appropriate set of parameters,for example, says a company spokesman, “a heatsink ‘knows’ it’s a heatsink, it comes in all the standard variations and thermal properties of a heatsink, it knows it is attached to a component and should the designer move that component, it will move with it.”

6SigmaET includes modelling down to package level, including the detailed geometry of typical components and the very variable detail of modern (especially consumer) electronics products. “Simulation tool have [in the past] struggled with complex geometry,” the company adds. Release 10 introduces a host of new features designed to accelerate solve times, enhance accuracy and enable the creation of more complex designs.

At the heart of Release 10 lies an improved unstructured gridding capability, which is claimed to make solving up to six times faster by altering the granularity of its grids to account for varying levels of complexity in the model. This allows users to run more variations of their designs, large models with greater accuracy and in ever-shorter timeframes.

Responding to industry suggestions, Release 10 makes key thermal analysis tasks even simpler, with improved configuration of the simulation environment including altitude and solar radiation. Inputs to the tool in terms of heat dissipations of individual devices, are normally supplied by the user; either as in tabular form using expected power figures, or using worst-case maximum ratings. The engineer identifies peak-power-dissipating parts, and also thermally-sensitive items. 6SigmaET now also calculates the weight of each part so engineers can optimise their product to reduce weight. Through these enhancements, engineers can use 6SigmaET to develop designs for an even greater array of real-life and hypothetical scenarios, without the need for costly prototypes.

Other features…[continues]


Other features include a new in-built Package Builder, which allows users to automatically generate individual IC component models simply by defining a list of preset parameters. Through this interface, users can create detailed integrated circuits thermal models for inclusion within their product designs – allowing them to analyse internal temperatures of complex ICs. Transient effects, with time-related analyses, can be handled, as can the use of phase-change (heat-pipe) cooling techniques.

The software can present results in a simplified form, showing which areas or components will meet or exceed (or be marginal) in their steady-state temperatures: or, it can generate detailed representations of temperature and airflow, either convection or fan-forced.

Release 10 also takes advantage of 6SigmaET’s recent partnership with cloud platform Rescale, allowing simulations to be solved on demand via high performance computing in the cloud. This can reduce solve times and (or) enable users to solve large and detailed simulations for which they may not have the required compute resource in-house.

Commenting on the new release, Tom Gregory, Product Manager at Future Facilities, said: “Many of these changes have come about through a crowdsourced approach to software development. With each release of 6SigmaET we have asked our customers for feedback and incorporated their recommendations into our design. Several of the functions built into Release 10, including improved simulation of micro vias and heat flux visualisation, have been included directly as a result of our existing customers’ individual needs.”

Future Facilities; www.6sigmaet.info

If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :    eeNews on Google News

Share:

Linked Articles
10s