Below, we see how the eye diagram changes when the increased resistance of copper as it varies with
increasing temperature is taken into account. The increased temperature and thus, resistance, gives a smaller
eye due to a larger voltage drop across the channel.
2. DC Electrical (DC-IR) -> CFD Thermal (IcePak) -> AC Simulation (SIwave: Forced Convection)
It is useful to know that a design will fail, but the ultimate goal of the designer is of course to change the design
such that it is operational. This can be done by changing the electrical design in many ways (shorter lines,
less temperature dependent materials, routing on the coolest parts of the board), but the addition of a fan
into the design can handily mitigate thermal issues on existing designs. IcePak also allows for simulation of
forced convection, which is the situation that air is being pushed through a design as is the case when a fan is
present. Below one can see the velocity vectors of the air being simulated in the design, as well as the cooler
temperature distribution on the PCB now that moving air is sinking more heat through convection.
Finally, we have our eye diagram corresponding to the SYZ solve using the forced convection temperature
distribution. As can be seen below, we have a passing eye diagram that takes heat into account, letting
us know that the addition of the fan into the design successfully solved signal degradation caused by the
increased heat in the natural convection scenario:
SIwave makes multi-physics design flows like the one given above very simple, enabling engineers to quickly ensure
bulletproof thermal performance.
