Calibre 3DThermal enables chip designers to model, visualise and mitigate thermal effects in their designs from early-stage chip and package-inward exploration through to design signoff by incorporating elements of Siemens’ Calibre verification software and Calibre 3DSTACK software along with its Simcenter Flotherm software solver engine.
According to Siemens its Calibre 3DThermal solution provides the outputs necessary for thermal impacts to be considered in electrical simulations. In addition, it can both consume as input boundary conditions as well as provide output to Simcenter Flotherm – providing true IC to system thermal modelling from IC to package to board to system level.
Calibre 3DThermal was developed to address challenges associated with 3D-IC architectures where controlling heat dissipation is a key requirement and provides the flexibility to start initial feasibility analysis with minimal inputs and can later perform more detailed analyses considering metallization details and their impact on thermal considerations as more detailed information becomes available.
This progressive approach helps designers to refine their analysis and apply fixes such as floor-planning changes and adding stacked vias or TSVs to avoid thermal hotspots and/or dissipate heat more effectively. This iterative process continues until the final assembly is complete, significantly reducing the risk of performance, reliability and manufacturing issues at final tape-out.
Delivering thermal analysis at this advanced level requires a complete understanding of the 3D-IC assembly as waiting until the assembly is complete to identify, and correct errors can severely disrupt design schedules. Calibre 3DThermal is intended to mitigate this risk through automation and integration, allowing designers to iterate thermal analysis at whichever design stage they are working on.
Calibre 3DThermal embeds a custom version of Siemens’ Simcenter Flotherm software solver engine to create precise chiplet-level thermal models for static or dynamic simulation of full 3DIC assemblies. Debugging is streamlined through the Calibre RVE software results viewer, which is already integrated across a wide range of IC design tools.
Calibre 3DThermal can be integrated with a range of design tools from both third parties, as well as with Siemens’ software including the newly announced Innovator3D IC software.
“Calibre 3DThermal represents a significant advancement in 3D-IC design and verification, providing designers with the capabilities they need to address thermal challenges early in the design process,” said Michael Buehler-Garcia, vice president, Calibre Product Management, Siemens Digital Industries Software. “By integrating thermal analysis directly into all stages of the IC design flow, we’re enabling our customers to create more reliable, high-performance 3DICs with greater confidence and efficiency.”
