- Analog and Mixed-signal IC Thermal Analysis

The CircuitFire thermal simulator computes full-chip temperatures with resolution down to the device and interconnect levels, and integrates smoothly into standard analog, mixed-signal and custom IC design flows.

The output is a full-chip, 3-D temperature map, which can be used to reveal hotspots and excessive temperature variations in analog circuitry. The temperature data can also be used to add thermal awareness to circuit simulation and other electrical analysis tools.

To run CircuitFire, you need to provide a thermal technology file (die stack-up) for the foundry process, and thermal information for the package. CircuitFire obtains the design layout and the power source information from your design environment to compute a full 3D temperature profile of the design. It outputs instance-specific temperatures and wire temperatures. This information can be annotated into simulation to determine the thermal impact on the circuit's performance and reliability, and to account for the electro-thermal effects within the chip.

Gradient is unique in its ability to calculate interconnect temperatures due to Joule heating, which allows designers to evaluate the impact on reliability due to electromigration failure.

CircuitFire takes into account the influence of the package thermal characteristics on the die temperatures.

Benefits

• CircuitFire provides accurate chip temperature data, which reveals opportunities to neutralize the adverse temperature effects and improve design quality.
• By providing nanoscale temperatures throughout the chip, CircuitFire enhances your ability to avoid reliability issues.
• Smooth integration with analog design flow.
• CircuitFire accurately accounts for package thermal characteristics, including bond wire/bumps, die-attach, ambient temperature, and airflow.

3D Visualization Capability

CircuitFire can be run in interactive GUI mode, allowing the user to navigate in three dimensions throughout the entire chip and to visually inspect the temperatures on the substrate and the metal layers. It can be also run in a text mode, allowing for scripting and integration of results into other analysis tools.

Visit our booth at the IEEE International 3D Systems Integration Conference at the Hyatt Embarcadero, San Francisco, California.

Date: September 28-30, 2009

Please send email to: sales@gradient-da.com to schedule a demo session.

"We have deployed CircuitFire to IC designers in the High Performance Analog Division at TI. We have designers using it to predict peak temperature, temperature variation and the effects of temperature on electrical performance of critically matched devices. Thermal simulation has been used on process technologies ranging from standard CMOS to trench isolated SOI and BiCMOS processes."

Tom Vrotsos,
TI Fellow and
Analog EDA Director,
Texas Instruments

RFMD

"Managing heat is important in high-power design. The thermal map of a circuit can be used as a floorplanning tool to reduce temperature deltas in sensitive areas of the design; this may translate to greater efficiency.
After successive simulation runs with CircuitFire, a designer can look at the thermal map and make decisions about how the heat producing elements can be placed."

David Schwan,
Engineering Manager,
CAD & Layout, Multi-Market Products Group,
RF Micro Devices, Inc.