Semiconductor Design

Semiconductor designers focus on designing devices such as BGAs, flip chips, MCMs, stack die and lead frame packages. These engineers are facing numerous multidisciplinary challenges including mechanical, thermal and electromagnetic. The driving force behind these challenges is the continuous need for a reduction in feature size where the latest processors use transistors with features of 45 nanometers or smaller. Thermally, this feature size reduction results in increasing power densities which increases the challenge of reducing the maximum junction temperature as well as the thermal variation across the die and throughout the package. Also, package designers are faced with the increasing geometric complexities of newer package types like MCMs and stack dies, as well as the need to include board and system level effects during the thermal design.

Mechanically, engineers have to deal with nonlinear behavior like fatigue, delamination, creep, buckling and fracture. Other issues they face are increasing geometric complexity, nonlinear material properties and multidisciplinary behaviors like thermo-mechanical stress or joule heating. In electromagnetic design, designers are faced with increasing power and signal integrity challenges driven by the need for smaller features and a reduction in power consumption.

To address these challenges, ANSYS provides you with a variety of multidisciplinary tools. For thermal management, ANSYS Icepak and ANSYS Icechip are used to conduct detailed conduction, convection and radiation analysis on detailed packages that include trace design layout and thermal via design, such as the effect of coating and underfill materials. Furthermore, you can incorporate variable power data on the die surface through interaction with several partner die level design tools.

Tools like ANSYS Mechanical are used to predict thermal and mechanical stress and analyze various nonlinear behaviors including warpage, solder joint creep and fatigue, as well as drop and vibration analysis.

For electromagnetics, accurate static and quasi-static parasitic extraction studies can be conducted using the highly automated software ANSYS Icemax, which generates RLC information for a variety of detailed IC package designs. Signal integrity analysis of complex interconnects and trace designs can also be conducted using ANSYS Multiphysics.

The depth and breath of ANSYS capabilities in the semiconductor industry enables designers to create a comprehensive multiphysics design leading to the optimization of product functionality, while meeting thermal, mechanical, and electromagnetic specifications. Furthermore, by reducing design uncertainty and the need for extensive physical testing, ANSYS products will shorten your product design cycle and reduce your development and manufacturing costs.