Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, Division Engineering of Adaptive Systems EASTherminator
Electronic components tend to heat up as they operate. Many integrated circuits of the newest generation are also used in environments that can be hotter than 100 degrees Celsius. Over time, this often leads to functional problems in these electronic components and a shortening of their service life. Additionally, chip housings that can withstand high temperatures are often very expensive, as are cooling systems.
Project Goals
In order to take full advantages of the possibilities offered by electronics in the future, THERMINATOR is therefore taking a unique approach. The European project partners want to take heat resilience into account already during the design of new systems. Designers will in future be able to consider temperature influences on electrical behavior directly within their familiar design processes.
Approach
The thermal problem can only be solved by considering a number of design levels at the same time, including the component, chip, housing and usage environment. For this reason, the project will approach the issue from multiple perspectives.
- The partners intend to develop innovative thermal models that can be used at various levels of abstraction. In addition, it should be possible to integrate them into existing electrical simulations and design environments.
- They are specifically developing new design solutions for various technologies and areas of application.
- The partners intend to improve existing design environments for integrated circuits by adding appropriate tools for taking thermal influences into account.
IIS/EAS is participating in the project with the development of a special design solution for simultaneous simulation of electrical and thermal properties as well as with work on modeling the chip environment (bonding wires, housing). This also involves consideration of the example industrial applications of the partners.
