Full-Scale GPU-Accelerated Transient EM-Thermal-Mechanical Co-Simulation for Early-Stage Design of Advanced Packages

TL;DR

This paper introduces a GPU-accelerated, full-scale transient co-simulation tool for early-stage electronic package design, capturing dynamic thermal and mechanical effects often missed by traditional steady-state methods.

Contribution

It presents a novel GPU-based solver enabling detailed, time-domain simulations of large-scale packages without homogenization, improving early design accuracy.

Findings

Identifies signal-induced adiabatic stress overlooked by steady-state models

Enables rapid, high-fidelity transient simulations for large packages

Facilitates early detection of failure mechanisms in electronic design

Abstract

In the early-stage design of advanced electronic packages, designers face a critical trade-off between simulation fidelity and computational turnaround time. Conventional early-stage methodologies typically achieve speed by relying on steady-state assumptions and structural homogenization. While computationally efficient, these approximations fundamentally fail to capture dynamic thermal events and stress concentrations at fine-grained internal interfaces, effectively masking failure mechanisms driven by transient signal bursts. In this work, we present a GPU-accelerated transient coupled Electromagnetic-Thermal-Mechanical solver that resolves this bottleneck. The proposed solver enables full-scale, non-homogenized, time-domain simulation of large-scale packages with runtimes amenable for rapid design iteration. Simulation of a NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA package demonstrates that the tool allows for the identification of signal-induced adiabatic stress that is typically invisible to steady-state and homogenized baselines. This capability brings sign-off level physics fidelity to the early design phase, facilitating the prevention of costly late-stage design failures and broader transient thermal performance degradation risks.