TRAC: A Thermal Resistance Advanced Calculator for Electronic Packages

Abstract

This paper presents a novel simulation tool named thermal resistance advanced calculator (TRAC). Such a tool allows the straightforward definition of a parametric detailed thermal model of electronic packages with Manhattan geometry, in which the key geometrical details and thermal properties can vary in a chosen set. Additionally, it can apply a novel model-order reduction-based approach for the automatic and fast extraction of a parametric compact thermal model of such packages. Furthermore, it is suited to automatically determine the joint electron device engineering council (JEDEC) thermal metrics for any choice of parameters in a negligible amount of time. The tool was validated through the analysis of two families of quad flat packages.

TRIC: A Thermal Resistance and Impedance Calculator for Electronic Packages

“…The tools share the same geometry simplifications and BCs. The favorable matching between the thermal metrics determined by TRAC and the FV software was already shown in [11] for eLQFPs, eTQFPs, and eQFN packages; the slight discrepancy (typically <2%, the maximum value being around 3%) was mainly attributed to the different mesh styles of the simulators. Evidence of the good agreement is also provided in Figure 11, which shows the (static) maps of temperature rise over ambient (T amb = 20 • C) determined for three eTQFPs with dies dissipating 1 W in the ϑ JA -related ambient; in particular, (a) corresponds to a 14 × 14 mm 2 package size with a 9 × 9 mm 2 epad and a 3 × 3 mm 2 die; (b) to a 10 × 10 mm 2 package with a 6 × 6 mm 2 epad and a 4 × 4 mm 2 die; (c) to a 10 × 10 mm 2 package with a 6 × 6 mm 2 epad and a 2 × 2 mm 2 die.…”

“…As mentioned in [11], a preliminary convergence analysis of the 3-D mesh discretization of the constructed pDTMs was performed for selected packages; in particular, the calculated thermal metrics were monitored by increasing the degrees of freedom (DoF) until a negligible mesh sensitivity was observed. Then the discretization leading to about 0.1% inaccuracy was chosen to avoid unnecessarily onerous too-fine meshes.…”