Cadence launches Celsius Thermal Solver

Following the launch of Clarity 3D Solver earlier this year, the Celsius Thermal Solver is the second product in Cadence’s new system analysis initiative. Based on a production-proven, massively parallel architecture that delivers up to 10X faster performance than legacy solutions without sacrificing accuracy, the Celsius Thermal Solver integrates with Cadence IC, package and PCB implementation platforms. This will, according to Cadence, enable new system analysis and design insights and will help empower electrical design teams to detect and mitigate thermal issues early in the design process—reducing electronic system development iterations.

IC and electronic systems companies, particularly those incorporating 3D-IC packaging, face growing thermal challenges that can cause late-stage design modifications and iterations and derail project schedules. As the electronics industry moves toward smaller, faster, smarter and more complex products with greater power density, thermal transient analysis techniques need to be deployed together with traditional steady-state analysis to address multiple power profiles and increased heat dissipation. All of which adds to an already complicated process, where traditional simulators require the electronics and enclosures being modeled to be substantially simplified, resulting in reduced accuracy.

The Celsius Thermal Solver uses innovative multi-physics technology to address these challenges. By combining finite element analysis (FEA) for solid structures with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for fluids, the Celsius Thermal Solver enables complete system analysis in a single tool. When using the Celsius Thermal Solver in conjunction with the Clarity 3D Solver, Voltus IC Power Integrity and Sigrity technology for PCB and IC packaging, engineering teams will be able to combine electrical and thermal analysis and simulate the flow of both electricity and heat for a more accurate system-level thermal simulation than legacy tools. In addition, the Celsius Thermal Solver performs both static (steady-state) and dynamic (transient) electrical-thermal co-simulations based on the actual flow of electrical power in advanced 3D structures, providing visibility into real-world system behaviour.

Electronics design teams will now be able to analyze thermal issues earlier, and the Celsius Thermal Solver will help to reduce design re-spins and enables new analysis and design insights not possible with legacy solutions. In addition, the Celsius Thermal Solver accurately simulates large systems with detailed granularity for any object of interest and is the first solution capable of modeling structures as small as the IC and its power distribution together with structures as large as the chassis.

The Celsius Thermal Solver supports Cadence’s Intelligent System Design strategy, enabling system innovation. It is built on matrix solver technology that is production proven in the recently announced Clarity 3D Solver and the Voltus IC Power Integrity Solution. Optimised for cloud environments, the Celsius Thermal Solver’s massively parallel architecture delivers up to 10X cycle time improvements compared to legacy solutions with high accuracy and unlimited scalability.

“As part of our Intelligent System Design strategy, Cadence is applying our extensive computational software expertise to new system innovations that address critical customer pain points,” said Tom Beckley, senior vice president and general manager, Custom IC & PCB Group at Cadence. “Following the highly successful launch of our Clarity 3D Solver earlier this year, the Celsius Thermal Solver helps our customers overcome the crucial challenge of system design and analysis of thermal effects and furthers Cadence’s expansion into new system domains.”