TTV
Thermal Test Vehicle
The Standard for Reliable Thermal Validation of Advanced Packages
As high-performance computing packages grow in size and complexity, thermal behavior becomes the limiting factor for performance, reliability, and lifetime.
Nanotest Thermal Test Vehicles (TTVs) provide a controlled, reproducible platform to simulate real package conditions — enabling accurate validation of TIMs, cooling solutions, and package designs under realistic and extreme scenarios.
Thermal testing in a piece of silicon
Why TTVs Matter
Modern CPUs and GPUs are not ideal for thermal testing. Their boundary conditions are difficult to control, temperature sensing is limited, and experiments are often expensive and hard to reproduce.
TTVs solve this by acting as a thermal twin of the package — reproducing real heat behavior while giving full control over input conditions and precise access to temperature data.
The result is testing that is not only more accurate, but also significantly more reliable and scalable.
What is a Thermal Test Vehicle?
A Thermal Test Vehicle is a purpose-built semiconductor package designed to emulate the thermal characteristics of real devices such as CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerators.
It reproduces hot spots, power density variations, and transient loads, while integrating distributed temperature sensing across the die.
Unlike real chips, a TTV allows you to define exactly how heat is generated and measured, turning thermal testing into a controlled engineering process instead of an approximation.
Key Features
Controlled Heat Flux
Hotspot Emulation
Integrated Sensing
Scalable Architectures
High Power Capability
Reproducible Testing
Built for Real Applications
TTVs are used wherever thermal performance defines success.
They enable deep insight into thermal interface materials, allowing engineers to evaluate performance, degradation, and long-term reliability under real operating conditions.
At the same time, they provide the foundation for developing and validating advanced cooling solutions — from conventional air cooling to liquid and direct cooling approaches.
Beyond thermal performance, TTVs also support package reliability investigations and assembly process optimization, helping identify risks early and improve manufacturing outcomes.
Proven TTV Platforms
Nanotest offers a range of standardized TTV systems, designed to reflect real-world package architectures.
From compact single-die solutions to large chiplet-based systems with dozens of heater zones and sensors, these platforms scale up to several kilowatts of power and enable highly detailed thermal characterization.
This allows customers to quickly start testing with proven configurations, while still having the flexibility to move toward fully customized solutions when needed.
Measurement, Control & Insight
Every TTV system is supported by a powerful measurement and control environment.
A scalable rack-based infrastructure provides the required power and data acquisition, while dedicated software enables real-time monitoring, automated testing, and advanced analysis.
Engineers can visualize temperature distributions, generate heat maps, analyze cycling behavior, and extract meaningful thermal metrics — all within a unified system designed for efficiency and clarity.
Your Fast Track to Thermal Insight
Off-the-shelf TTVs provide a proven starting point for thermal validation. They reduce setup time, eliminate uncertainty, and allow immediate testing with reliable and comparable results. Can't find what you need? Check out out CUSTOM TTV Service, giving you the exact package you need: