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

6.5. Heat Sink

FPGAs appear in a wide variety of products and layout configurations, consequently it can be difficult to find off-the-shelf heat sinks that meet all physical and performance requirements. Consequently, most applications will require custom heat sinks to maximize performance. For the purpose of our example, we have chosen an extruded aluminum heatsink generated by the CFD tool.

Attachment Force

The force with which the heat sink is attached depends on the number of pins in the package and the solder material. For more information about heat sink attachment force, refer to the article What is the maximum downward pressure that can be applied to the top of FPGA BGA packages?.

Thermal Interface Material (TIM)

Intel does not recommend a specific thermal interface material (TIM). The choice of TIM depends on multiple factors, including TIM performance, performance over lifetime, cost, ease of application, and reworkability. Depending on the type of TIM used, the manufacturer may specify different application criteria. As a general rule, TIMs with high conductivity and low bond-line thickness perform the best. In our example we have chosen a generic TIM with 0.25 mm thickness and a thermal conductivity of 5 W(/mk).

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