Ansys Sherlock

Ansys Sherlock provides fast and accurate life predictions for electronic hardware at the component, board and system levels in early design stages. Sherlock bypasses the ‘test-fail-fix-repeat’ cycle by empowering designers to accurately model silicon–metal layers, semiconductor packaging, printed circuit boards (PCBs) and assemblies to predict failure risks due to thermal, mechanical and manufacturing stressors–all before prototype.

Design for Reliability From the Very Start of your Project

Electrical, mechanical, and reliability engineers can work in tandem to implement design best practices, predict product lifetimes and reduce failure risks.

Sherlock reduces expensive build-and-test iterations by virtually running thermal cycling, power-temperature cycling, vibration, shock, bending, thermal derating, accelerated life, natural frequency, and CAF to adjust designs in near real-time and achieve qualification in one round. In post-processing simulation results from Icepak and Mechanical, and LS-DYNA, Sherlock can predict test success and estimate warranty return rates. Icepak, Mechanical, and LS-DYNA users are more efficient by directly connecting simulation to material and manufacturing costs.

Key Features

Unlike any other tool on the market, Sherlock uses files created by your design team to build 3D models of electronic assemblies for trace modeling, post-processing, and reliability predictions. This early insight immediately identifies areas of concern and allows you to adjust and retest designs quickly.

Builds and tests virtual products
Modifies designs in near real-time
Quickly runs mechanical simulations
Evaluates and optimizes design choices

Pre- and Post-Processor for Ansys Mechanical, Icepak & LS-DYNA

Sherlock’s over 600,000+ parts materials library enables the creation of accurate and complex FEA and CFD models. These models can be imported directly into Mechanical, Icepak & LS-DYNA for improved model fidelity and analysis exported back into Sherlock for time-to-failure predictions.

Reliability Predictions

Sherlock’s post-processor determines time to failure with a complete and comprehensive lifetime curve—reducing the number of required physical testing iterations and improving the chances that prototypes will pass qualification tests in the first round.

Sherlock’s post-processing tool includes reporting and recommendations, a lifetime curve graph, red-yellow-green risk indicators, tabular display, graphic overlay, pinned results based on reliability goals, automated report generation and a locked IP model for review by suppliers and customers.

PCB Modelling

With its extensive parts and materials libraries (part, package, materials, solder, laminate and more), Sherlock automatically identifies your files and imports your parts list. It then builds a 3D finite element analysis (FEA) model of your circuit board in minutes.

Sherlock’s powerful parsing engine (capable of importing Gerber, ODB++ and IPC-2581 files, etc.) and embedded libraries (containing over 200,000 parts) automatically builds box-level FEA models with accurate material properties—reducing pre-processing time from days to minutes.

ECAD to CAE

Sherlock is the leading industry tool for converting a range of ECAD files into simulation-ready finite element models, with the following features:

Captures stackup from output files (Gerber, ODB++, IPC-2581)
Automatically calculates weight, density and in-plane and out-of-plane modulus, coefficient of thermal expansion and thermal conductivity
Allows the user to explicitly model all PCB features (such as traces and vias) over the entire circuit board or in a region using either 1D/2D reinforcements or 3D solids
Captures over 40 different part and package parameters using the embedded parts/package/material libraries
Geometry with material properties can be exported for current density (SIwave), thermal (Icepak) or structural (Mechanical) analysis

Failure Analysis

Utilising Physics of Failure and Reliability Physics techniques, Sherlock accurately predicts the failure behavior of electronic hardware and components, providing users with actionable results to optimise their product designs.

Physics of Failure (PoF), or Reliability Physics, uses degradation algorithms that describe how physical, chemical, mechanical, thermal or electrical mechanisms can decline over time and eventually induce failure. Sherlock uses these algorithms to assess thermal cycling, mechanical shock, natural frequency, harmonic vibration, random vibration, bending, integrated circuit/semiconductor wear-out, thermal derating, conductive anodic filament (CAF) qualification and more.

Thermal Reliability

Sherlock predicts thermal failure rate and end of life for multiple part technologies as a function of ambient temperature, temperature rise due to power dissipation, and electrical loads.

Aging and wear-out of integrated circuits are captured through acceleration transforms for electromigration, time-dependent dielectric breakdown, hot carrier injection and negative bias temperature instability. Supplier-specific time to failure predictions for aluminum liquid electrolytic capacitors and ceramic capacitors (MLCC) is provided. Finally, Sherlock automates the thermal derating process and flags devices being used outside of the specified operation or storage temperature range.

Solder Fatigue

Sherlock provides users ultimate flexibility in predicting solder fatigue behavior. The software’s fully validated 1D solder model predicts solder fatigue reliability under thermomechanical and mechanical environments for all electronic parts (die attach, BGA, QFN, TSOP, chip resistor, through hole, etc.).

Sherlock’s Thermal-Mech capability incorporates the effect of system-level mechanical elements (chassis, module, housing, connectors, etc.) on solder fatigue analysis by capturing complex, mixed mode loading conditions. Sherlock also supports the use of Darveaux or Syed models in Ansys Mechanical by pushing simulation-ready models of BGA, CSP, SiP, and 2.5D/3D packaging.

Mechanical Parts

Sherlock’s intuitive user interface allows even the beginner user to add additional features to their PCBA model before simulation.

This includes our heatsink editor, where users can create pin- and fin-based heatsinks using fill-in fields and drop-down menus and attach them to components or PCBs. Users can also add a wide variety of conformal coatings, potting compounds, underfills, and staking adhesives so the FEA model best represents the real world.

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