Method and apparatus for using full-chip thermal analysis of semiconductor chip designs to compute thermal conductance

Abstract

A method and apparatus for using full-chip thermal analysis of semiconductor chip designs to compute thermal conductivity is disclosed. One embodiment of a novel method for analyzing the conductivity of a semiconductor chip design that comprises a plurality of physical layers includes defining at least one thermal layer within the plurality of physical layers, where the thermal layer(s) represents a variance in thermal conductivity relative to a remainder of the semiconductor chip design, and computing a thermal conductivity of the thermal layer(s). As the thermal layer(s) represents variances in thermal conductivity over the semiconductor chip design, the thermal layer(s) does not necessarily correspond one-to-one to the physical layers of the semiconductor chip design. Thus, the thermal conductivities within the semiconductor chip design can be computed from the thermal layers.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 198,470, filed Aug. 5, 2005. Ser. No. 11 / 198,470 is in turn a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 979,957, filed Nov. 3, 2004, and additionally claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 598,987, filed Aug. 5, 2004. All of these applications are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention generally relates to semiconductor chip design, and more particularly relates to the thermal analysis of semiconductor chip designs.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Semiconductor chips typically comprise the bulk of the components in an electronic system. These semiconductor chips are also often the hottest part of the electronic system, and failure of the system can often be traced back to thermal overload on the chips. As such, accurate estimation of a semiconductor chip ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The patent describes a way to analyze the heat transfer in semiconductor chips using a method called full-chip thermal analysis. This method involves measuring the temperature of the chip and creating layers that represent the variations in heat transfer. These layers don't always match the actual layers of the chip, but by analyzing these layers, researchers can calculate the overall heat transfer of the chip. This method can help improve the design of semiconductor chips and prevent overheating, which can cause damage or malfunction."

Problems solved by technology

These semiconductor chips are also often the hottest part of the electronic system, and failure of the system can often be traced back to thermal overload on the chips.

Such conventional methods, however, typically fail to provide a complete or an entirely accurate picture of the chip's operating thermal gradient.

For example, typical thermal analysis models attempt to solve the temperature on the chip substrate, but do not solve the temperature in a full three dimensions, e.g., using industry standards design, package and heat sink data.

Moreover, most typical methods do not account for the sharing of power among semiconductor devices and interconnects, which distributes the heat field within the chip, as discussed above.

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