AN 944: Thermal Modeling for Intel® Agilex™ FPGAs with the Intel® FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator

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ID 683810
Date 3/29/2021
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. List of Abbreviations 2. Introduction 3. Intel® Agilex™ FPGA Package Mechanical Design 4. Intel® Agilex™ FPGA Thermal Design Parameters 5. Thermal Design Process for Intel® Agilex™ Devices 6. Power and Thermal Calculator (PTC) for Intel® Agilex™ Devices 7. Example 2—Alternative Method of Analyzing Thermal Design 8. Document Revision History for AN 944: Thermal Modeling for Intel® Agilex™ FPGAs with the Intel® FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator
3. Intel® Agilex™ FPGA Package Mechanical Design x
3.1. Intel® Agilex™ Physical Package Structure
4. Intel® Agilex™ FPGA Thermal Design Parameters x
4.1. Intel® Agilex™ Compact Thermal Model (CTM) 4.2. Intel® Agilex™ Temperature Sensing 4.3. Thermal Sensor Accuracy
5. Thermal Design Process for Intel® Agilex™ Devices x
5.1. Thermal Parameter Dependencies and Accuracy
6. Power and Thermal Calculator (PTC) for Intel® Agilex™ Devices x
6.1. Device Selection and Analysis Example 6.2. Logic Design Information 6.3. Thermal Page and Thermal Design Parameters 6.4. CTM Model 6.5. Heat Sink 6.6. CFD Model
7. Example 2—Alternative Method of Analyzing Thermal Design x
7.1. Example 2—Full Length 1 Slot PCIe with 2 FPGAs 7.2. Thermal Design Optimization
1. List of Abbreviations
2. Introduction
3. Intel® Agilex™ FPGA Package Mechanical Design
4. Intel® Agilex™ FPGA Thermal Design Parameters
5. Thermal Design Process for Intel® Agilex™ Devices
6. Power and Thermal Calculator (PTC) for Intel® Agilex™ Devices
7. Example 2—Alternative Method of Analyzing Thermal Design
8. Document Revision History for AN 944: Thermal Modeling for Intel® Agilex™ FPGAs with the Intel® FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator

4.1. Intel® Agilex™ Compact Thermal Model (CTM)

The system-level thermal analysis of the Intel® Agilex™ FPGA requires the use of its compact thermal model (CTM) in a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tool. The CTMs are simplified mechanical models of the packages with modified thermal properties so they can predict an accurate case temperature with uniform power distribution for each die. The results of the CFD analysis are valid only to evaluate the TCASE of the package. Power values for input to the model come from the Intel® FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator (PTC).

The IHS center temperature or TCASE-CENTER is useful to evaluate the cooling design. If the CFD-calculated TCASE-CENTER is less than or equal to the TCASE reported by the PTC, then the maximum TJ specified in the PTC will not be exceeded.

The latest CTMs for use with Intel® Agilex™ devices, are offered in ECXML format, which is compatible with the following CFD tools:

  • Icepak* from ANSYS
  • Flotherm* from Mentor Graphics*
  • 6SigmaET* from Future Facilities
If your company does not use any of the above CFD tools, Intel® can provide a step file of the CTM, by request. The step file model is compatible with other thermal tools, such as:
  • Thermal Analysis* from SolidWorks
  • Thermal Analysis by Autodesk

Step models do not have built in thermal material properties; that data is provided separately, and you must add it to the models.

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