Thermal simulation using adaptive 3D and hierarchical grid mechanisms
US8286111B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 2, 2008 |
| Grant date | Oct 9, 2012 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 16, 2031 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F30/367
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
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.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.