Mentor Graphics FloTHERM wins 2011 Design News Golden Mousetrap Award for Best Design Tools Product

WILSONVILLE, USA: Mentor Graphics Corp. announced that it has received the 2011 Design News Golden Mousetrap Award for Best Product in the Design Tools Category for its FloTHERM 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software.

The FloTHERM 9 product features an industry-first, patent-pending technology for Bottleneck (Bn) and Shortcut (Sc) fields that identifies where heat flow congestion occurs in the electronic design and why, and identifies optimum thermal shortcuts to efficiently resolve the design problem.

“The products highlighted in this year's Golden Mousetrap winners and finalists clearly demonstrate both cutting-edge design ideas and the practical evolution of technologies for systems and product design engineers,” stated David Greenfield, editorial director of Design News Magazine. “Design News congratulates all the engineers and their companies who have been recognized with the Golden Mousetrap Award, and we are grateful for their contribution to this year's competition.”

For more than two decades, the Design News Awards Program has recognized engineering innovation and creativity in product design. This year, Golden Mousetrap awards were given in four major categories: Electronics & Test, Automation & Control, Design Tools: Hardware & Software, and Materials & Assembly.

Managing Editor Jennifer Campbell gathered a record number of entries, distributing them to their beat editors for judging. Based on their expertise in each technology area, 18 winners and 95 finalists were selected. Mentor Graphics also received a Golden Mousetrap Award in 2010 for its innovative FloEFD concurrent CFD software that provides rapid virtual prototyping.

The industry-leading FloTHERM software reduces thermal verification by 33 percent and reduces PCB design re-spins by 500% compared to other solutions, according to a survey conducted by the Aberdeen Group (Maintaining Design Integrity through the PCB Process, 2007). The new Bn and Sc capabilities revolutionize the way designers solve their heat management challenges. When used in conjunction with the FloTHERM classic thermal analysis, designers will be guided with intelligent suggestions based on the Bn and Sc fields instead of experimenting with trial and error solutions.

“We are honored to receive our second consecutive Design News Golden Mousetrap Award now for our patent-pending Bn and Sc technology in our FloTHERM software,” stated Erich Buergel, general manager of Mentor Graphics Mechanical Analysis Division. “This innovative technology has helped reduce our customers’ development costs while improving product quality in shorter timeframes.”