Automated mechanical simulation system for microelectronic packaging

the importance of the application of finite element analysis (FEA) is well known in IC package design. However, a lot of commercial FEA software is not easy to be used for most of the IC package designer and developer. To overcome these difficulties, a new approach based on HyperWorks and Tcl/Tk scripts is used to construct an automated simulation system. With this system, users only need to type in some basic parameters in the GUI widget and then, the system can run a certain simulation process automatically (including creating the geometry model, meshing, assign material and property, loading BCs, solving and post-process). This paper addresses the general methodology of the AutoSim system. The system has been used in warpage calculation, board level drop & TC simulation and the results matched very well with that from the traditional simulation method.