New Simulation Advancements in Electronics Thermal Management Reduce Engineering Time and Accelerate Product Development

ANSYS has announced the latest release of ANSYS Icepak software, which provides robust and powerful fluid dynamics technology for electronics thermal management. The 12.0 release introduces new solutions for printed circuit board (PCB) and package thermal analysis, new and enhanced technology for meshing complex geometry, and new physical modeling capabilities. These advances enable engineers who design electronic components for products such as cell phones, computers and graphics cards to improve design performance, reduce the need for physical prototypes and shorten time to market in the highly competitive electronics industry.

ANSYS Icepak software accelerates the product development process by accurately simulating the dissipation of thermal energy in electronic devices at the component, board or system level. Based on the state-of-the-art ANSYS FLUENT CFD solver, ANSYS Icepak software has a streamlined user interface that speaks the language of electronics design engineers, enabling the rapid creation of models of complex electronic assemblies. Integration of ANSYS Iceboard and ANSYS Icechip capabilities into ANSYS Icepak 12.0 provides engineers with an integrated platform to analyze package, PCB and system designs. Direct import of electronic CAD (ECAD) designs allows engineers to model all components of packages and PCBs, including, traces, vias, solder balls, solder bumps, wire bonds and dies. A new PCB trace Joule heating modeling capability along with the import of DC power distribution profiles from Ansoft SIwave software significantly enhance the accurate thermal simulation of PCBs. ANSYS Icepak 12.0 also offers enhanced fan modeling capabilities, parallel processing, post-processing, and new libraries including heat sinks, thermo-electric coolers, materials and enhanced macros. In keeping with the ANSYS comprehensive multiphysics strategy, ANSYS Icepak technology used in conjunction with SIwave and ANSYS Mechanical products provides a coupled solution to meet the electrical, thermal and structural requirements of the electronics design engineer.

"ANSYS Icepak 12.0 addresses the thermal management simulation challenges facing engineers designing electronic components. With today's high-performance electronic devices, there is a trend to reduce device size while increasing product functionality. This trend increases power densities in devices, which necessitates that thermal management become a design driver," said Dipankar Choudhury, vice president of corporate product strategy and planning at ANSYS, Inc.

ANSYS Icepak 12.0 brings greater automation and flexibility for meshing complex electronics geometry. Two new meshing technologies - automatic multi-level meshing and Cartesian hex-dominant meshing - significantly enhance the software's ability to handle complex geometries and improve accuracy without sacrificing robustness. New meshing enhancements provide improved mesh smoothness, quality, curvature and proximity capturing, and speed. The automatic generation of highly accurate, conformal meshes that represent the true shape of electronic components and the solution of fluid flow and all modes of heat transfer - conduction, convection and radiation - for both steady-state and transient thermal flow simulations enable engineers to rapidly evaluate thermal management issues for electronic devices, with a reduction in development time and increased product reliability as a result.

ANSYS Icepak 12.0 adds depth and breadth to the individual physics and modeling technologies that are part of the complete ANSYS multiphysics portfolio, which also includes Ansoft electromagnetic, electromechanical, circuit and system behavior technologies.