Future Facilities, a leading producer of engineering simulation software, has announced that 6SigmaET Release 13 is available for download.

The latest release of 6SigmaET offers a wealth of new and enhanced functionality, designed to improve modeling efficiency and connectivity between engineering design tools.

The new software includes:

Neutral File Format

It’s frustrating to receive a thermal model from a parts supplier, only to find you can’t open it because it was created in a different thermal simulation tool.

Future Facilities - following an initiative by Intel and Motorola, along with Mentor and Ansys - is implementing a neutral file format that enables the exchange of models between software tools. This will help companies such as microprocessor designers, power supply manufacturers and subassembly designers to easily share data with their customers.

Expanded CAD Integration

CAD models can be directly imported using STEP or IGES format, and include full part names, CAD hierarchy and object color from your CAD tool, helping you to identify and configure CAD parts.

You can apply contact resistance to individual faces of CAD objects, enabling more accurate prediction of the heat transfer between two touching objects.

Different surface treatments can be applied to each face of a CAD object in Release 13, allowing you to model scenarios such as painted or polished surfaces. Alongside this, we have enabled simulation results reporting for each face of an object.

Throttling: Controlling Component Power

In modern devices, microprocessors continuously vary processor utilization to maximize performance while keeping the device within its thermal limits. Processor frequencies are reduced, or cores switched off, in a process known as thermal throttling.

Release 13 adds new functionality to simulate complex thermal throttling. You can now control power dissipation based on sensor temperature, transition devices to different power profiles based on temperature or, for highly sophisticated power schemes, 6SigmaET can integrate with control system simulation software.

PCB Modeling Improvements

Simulating a PCB efficiently can be challenging: their designs are often complicated, with thousands of traces and vias and hundreds of components. 6SigmaET’s range of PCB modeling options help you to simulate everything from concepts to final detailed designs.

Release 13 adds a new PCB modeling level called Mixed Mode, enabling you to simplify the modeling of the PCB layer while modeling some traces in full detail. We have also added the ability to specify the power across a PCB using a power map, allowing you to precisely define an area of the PCB with high power dissipation.

For more information or to download a free trial, visit https://www.6sigmaet.info/release-13.