December 12, 2011 — Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ:MENT) has combined technologies for thermal characterization and simulation with T3Ster hardware test products and its FloTHERM software, enabling better heat management in power semiconductor packages, such as LEDs.
T3Ster performs advanced thermal transient testing for semiconductor device packages and LEDs. FloTHERM provides electronics thermal simulation and analysis to predict airflow, temperature and heat transfer throughout electronics components, boards, and systems. Engineers can evaluate and test designs automatically before physical prototypes are built. The T3Ster/FloTHERM interface enables more accurate thermal simulation than working from vendor datasheets, MENT reports. The characterization is JESD51-14-compliant. JESD51-14 is a measurement methodology standard for the junction-to-case thermal resistance of power semiconductor devices.
When combined with the T3Ster product, engineers using the FloTHERM tool will benefit from both accurate thermal simulation models derived from real measurements and thermal package characterization testing.
The integrated thermal suite is designed to eliminate manual thermal characterization work and improve accuracty. The combined T3Ster hardware measurement and FloTHERM software simulation methodology optimizes heat management in devices, sub-systems and full systems. Component makers can optimize LED and IC package designs for effective heat dissipation. Device prototypes can then be characterized thermally to build accurate models for subsystem and system designs. Systems integrators can verify heat management strategy with physical measurements in T3ster.
LEDs are becoming more powerful, drawing more attention to heat in failure mechanisms, said Dr. Thomas Zahner, quality manager, Osram Opto Semiconductors, who is using the product. "OSRAM is devoting considerable attention to thermal design." Zahner notes that testing in bulk increases their statistical confidence in measurement results. Thermal attach issues are identified by the T3Ster product (from