Mentor’s Thermal Design Software Is The Best. OK, say’s who? It’s the conclusion from some independent research carried out by Aberdeen Research Group. Last time I showed that Aberdeen had found that Mentor’s customers are almost 3 times faster at completing thermal verification than users of other tools. Let’s take a look at why that is. Aberdeen found evidence of what users … [Read more...]

It could save your company a shed load of time and money… Interested? OK, here’s some research by Aberdeen Group, which I presented at several of the recent Solutions Expos. First off, the Mechanical Analysis Division’s customers choose Mentor’s tools because they recognise them as being the best. They don’t just make do with tools available as part of another software suite, … [Read more...]

Like a river this blog series is slowing down due to its increased width and depth, that and a lot of travel on my part. So, let’s get it back on track! The previous blog focussed on the relatively well known 2 resistor compact thermal model (CTM) method, its strengths (simple to measure and describe) and its deficiencies (unconfirmed and inconsistent accuracy for … [Read more...]

Next stop on the avenue of package thermal modelling is 2 resistor CTMs (compact thermal models). Specifically Theta_jb and Theta_jc, the thermal resistance between junction and board and junction and case respectively. Unlike their lowly 1R cousins these two resistances do not purport to include the effects of the package environment (well almost not) as such they should in … [Read more...]

Just a quick post to let you know yours truly will be giving a presentation on: Thermal Design: A Key Part of the Electronics Design Flow At the UK Solutions Expo at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon on 12th November. Miniaturization continues to increase power densities at all packaging levels, forcing design teams to identify new methods of cooling. The challenge remains … [Read more...]