Impact of sum of failure rates (SOFR) model on thermal design in SOC´s for next generation game consoles

The SOFR model is modified for SOCs in consumer electronics applications such as game consoles for advanced logic technology nodes (~2X nm). Using a representative voltage/temperature dataset from XBOX ONE SOC operation, a quantitative measure of “degree of over-design coefficient (df)” is developed to better understand the impact of worst case reliability assumptions on thermal design. A simple analytical model is also developed to illustrate the relationship between silicon level failure rates and a system level thermal design parameter (h), or the heat transfer coefficient. The heat transfer coefficient (h) is also identified as a proxy for thermal design elements such as heat sink size, fan size and speed, which strongly influence user experience. It is thus emphasized that use of SOFR model minimizes thermal over-design, thereby improving user experience, without compromising reliability.