Thermal issues are well known to designers of high power analog ICs, and are becoming more importnat in digital design as clock rates and chip densities increase. In many cases thermal effects can dominate a system, often being a limiting factor in both performanc eand reliability. Effective consideration of thermal issues in the design of mixed signal ICs has been ham-pered by the lack of integration betwene thermal solvers and electrical simulators. A new approach will be presented that seamlessly integrates finite element thermal analysis into the design process. We will discuss coupling a thermal analysis engine to a cricuit simulation engine to achieve simultaneous simulation of electricla and thermal performance. An analysis of self-heating effects is performed, and the impact on the surrounding circuit is evaluated.
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