Evaluation of a thermal design tool for electronics-a three chip MCM as a case study

Thermal analysis software based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is being increasingly used by designers to predict the thermal performance of electronic devices and systems. Such tools allow the designer to integrate thermal analysis into the design process, thereby minimizing costly prototyping and reducing the design cycle. Icepak is a software specially designed for the thermal design of electronics. However, such tools need to be validated against reliable experimental data prior to being incorporated into the regular design process. This paper presents temperature and air flow predictions for a three-chip Multi-Chip Module (MCM) cooled by natural convection, obtained from Icepak. The results were found to compare very well with published experimental data