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

2026-03-07

AI Summary

This work addresses the limitations of conventional advanced packaging design methodologies, which rely on steady-state assumptions and structural homogenization and thus fail to capture transient signal-induced dynamic thermal effects and interfacial stress concentrations, often overlooking critical failure mechanisms. To overcome this, the authors propose a GPU-accelerated, full-scale, heterogeneous transient electro-thermo-mechanical multiphysics co-simulation framework that, for the first time, brings signoff-quality transient multiphysics simulation capabilities into the early design phase. By eliminating the need for structural homogenization, the method enables rapid co-simulation of large-scale package structures. Applied to a NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA case study, it successfully identified signal-induced adiabatic stress, significantly enhancing early-stage prediction of transient thermo-mechanical failure risks.

Technology Category

• Machine Learning: Hardware-aware ML
• Search and Optimization: Sampling/Simulation-based Search
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Satisfiability Modulo Theories

Application Category

• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Algorithms and analysis for heterogeneous, signed, attributed, multi-relational, temporal, higher-order, and annotated Web-related graphs
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data generation and simulation
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web performance, measurement, and characterization

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.

Problem

• transient simulation
• thermal-mechanical co-simulation
• advanced packaging
• stress concentration
• early-stage design

Innovation

• GPU-accelerated co-simulation
• transient EM-thermal-mechanical coupling
• non-homogenized full-scale modeling
• early-stage package design
• adiabatic stress detection