Gradient Design Automation Inc.

John Yanjiang Shu

Adi Srinivasan

Rajit Chandra

Paolo Carnevali

A thermally aware design automation suite integrates system-level thermal awareness into design of semiconductor chips, performing fine-grain static and/or transient thermal simulations of the chips based on thermal models and boundary conditions. The thermal simulations are performed in accordance with one or more grids, with boundaries and/or resolutions being determined by adaptive and/or hierarchical multi-dimensional techniques. The adaptive grid techniques include material-boundary, rate-of-change, and convergence-information heuristics. For example, a finer grid is used in a region having higher temperature gradients compared to a region having lower temperature gradients. The hierarchical grid techniques are based on critical, intermediate, and boundary regions specified manually or automatically, each region having a respective grid resolution. For example, a critical region is analyzed according to a grid that is finer than a grid of an intermediate region, and resolution of a grid of a boundary region is adapted to boundary conditions.

Thermal simulation using adaptive 3D and hierarchical grid mechanisms

Transient thermal simulation of semiconductor chips uses region-wise variable spatial grids and variable temporal intervals, enabling spatio-temporal thermal analysis of semiconductor chips. Temperature rates of change across a die and/or package of an integrated circuit are computed and tracked versus time. Critical time interval(s) for temperature evaluation are determined. Temperatures of elements, components, devices, and interconnects are updated based on a 3D full chip temperature analysis. Respective power dissipations are updated, as a function of the temperatures, with an automated interface to one or more circuit simulation tools. Subsequently new temperatures are determined as a function of the power dissipations. User definable control and observation parameters enable flexible and efficient transient thermal analysis. The parameters relate to power sources, monitoring, reporting, error tolerances, and output snapshots. Viewing of waveform plots and 3D spatial variations of temperature enable efficient communication of results of the thermal analysis with designers of integrated circuits.

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Livermore, CA, United States of America

John Yanjiang Shu