Science lends a hand in efficient product development

The rapidly growing market for Internet of Things applications, in which short development cycles are necessary, poses new challenges for electronics manufacturers. With a scientific, predictive approach, the product development process can be made faster and cheaper, says Geert Willems of imec.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

In daily life, Willems is responsible for imec's center for Electronics Design & Manufacturing (cEDM). The cEDM focuses on the physical realization of electronics, says Willems: “I sometimes call it the “mechanics of electronics”. A main theme is Design-for-eXcellence, where the X refers to matters such as manufacturability, quality, test, reliability, cost, you name it. Everything except the electronic functionality. At a higher system level, we also work on product development methods for smart systems in which electronics form the brain.”

In the development of contemporary electronics, speed in bringing devices to market has become a necessity: “In the 'Smart Product' world, everything moves fast. New markets, new technology, new components, new applications, and so on. It is new but also variable and very dynamic in terms of application, performance and functionality,” says Willems.

This dynamic aspect of IoT technology clashes with the 'old' way of product development: “The traditional way of product development is usually based on experience, both in terms of design rules and validation testing. By definition, however, no one has experience with new technologies and components. If you wait until that experience has been gained by others, you have missed the boat. In addition, the traditional approach mainly follows the design/test/adjust scenario. This is expensive and time-consuming. So we need something better.”

A different way of product development

Willems proposes a working method for this, which he describes with the title 'Predictive New Product Introduction for Smart Products'. Simply put, this methodology is more focused on a scientific approach to the development process, because in Willems' eyes, science with all its laws of nature is the best thing we have besides a crystal ball: “We must be able to predict the properties of the product under development without actually building and testing it. It is also very important to properly assess the risks in terms of costs, quality and reliability. We can do this by making more use of the physical principles (science) on which we base models that allow us to simulate the product instead of building and testing it.

This New Product Introduction model applies, among other things, Design-for-Excellence in the early steps of a product design, as well as virtual prototyping using simulation software. Even more gains can be achieved in the later steps, says Willems: “We also need to do some 'homework' in which we qualify the capability of technologies outside the product development process so that we do not encounter surprises, major delays and additional costs in this process. to stand. Replacing all tests is not a realistic option, but important improvements are feasible. This can be done by replacing testing – in particular long-term product reliability testing – with simulations and by concentrating testing mainly in the technology qualification 'homework'. This reduces the need for testing and allows test results to be used frequently for each new product, based on a certain qualified technology class, rather than having to repeat testing per product.”

In practice, Imec's cEDM helps electronics companies that want to apply this new approach: “We provide support in product development where, for example, we estimate the risks of failure in customer tests based on Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) and simulation. . This allows timely measures to be taken or adjustments to be made to the design, even before the step towards prototype construction and validation testing is taken. This prevents significant additional costs, delays and damage to the customer's reputation if failing occurs.”

During the Design Automation & Embedded Systems Event, Geert Willems will give a lecture under the title Predictive New Product Introduction for Smart Products. This will take place on November 7 at 10:00 am in Mechelen.