Icepak Adds Technologies for Thermal Design of Electronic Systems

By DE Editors

Version 4.3 of the Icepak electronics cooling design software now part of the ANSYS Inc. (Southpointe, PA) suite of solutions introduces new technologies in thermal design of electronic systems. Its direct representation of CAD geometries expands the ability of the software to handle complex geometry.

In addition to a new meshing technology, Icepak 4.3 now offers direct import of trace and via details from MCM/BRD and Gerber files of printed circuit board (PCB) layout, as well as a new method to represent these details. Icepak 4.3 models the effects of traces on PCBs and package substrates by generating thermal conductivity distributions based on local trace and via densities.

The new automatic hex-dominant mesher is an unstructured mesh generator that can handle grids of virtually unlimited size and complexity, consisting mostly of hexahedral elements but also including triangular, tetrahedral, or pyramidal cells. It uses algorithms to allow the most appropriate cell type to be used to generate body-fitted meshes for general CAD geometries.

In addition, Icepak 4.3 technology offers enhanced libraries, including thermo-electric cooler modules, new materials, modeling of temperature-dependent powers, enhanced macros, and improved correlations for automatic specification of heat transfer coefficients.

Icepak is part of the ANSYS suite as a result of the company's recent acquisition of Fluent Inc.  Visit icepak.com for more information.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.