University of Greenwich PhD graduate Sheikh Hassan and Professor Stoyan Stoyanov, Professor of Computational Engineering, have been chosen as recipients of the prestigious Best Research Paper prize at the 25th European Microelectronics and Packaging Conference in Grenoble, France.
The event is the European flagship conference on electronics technology, organised by the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society in Europe. It was attended by over 450 participants from 31 countries worldwide.
Everything from solar panels and wind turbines to electric cars contain many power devices that enable the necessary power change to occur were covered at the event. When designing these power devices, manufacturers need to assess their risks and life span. Typically, computer simulations use a mathematical model called the element method to solve complex problems with millions of equations that predict how the device will perform.
However, through research from a UKRI-funded project involving the University of Nottingham and the Computational Mechanics and Reliability Group in the Research Centre for Advanced Simulation and Modelling in the Faculty of Engineering and Science at the University of Greenwich, and from a PhD project by Sheikh, he and Professor Stoyanov were able to find a new, faster method.
The reduced order modelling method uses mathematical techniques to transform the detailed large-scale model to an equivalent small size mathematical formulation that can be solved at a fraction of the original computational cost. The method reduces the computational time it takes to run a simulation by over 90%, all whilst maintaining the accuracy and fidelity of the large-scale finite element model of the physical system.
The model order reduction method can be used by manufacturers and end-users of power devices to explore more efficiently and quickly different designs for their products and to optimise in advance their reliability performance, enabling innovation and shorter time-to-market for power electronics components and system, powering the green revolution.
Professor Stoyan Stoyanov said:
"Our development of this new physics-based modelling technology for fast simulations creates exciting avenues for future research.
"We're currently focused on adapting this method for advanced microelectronics applications, such as the packaging and assembly challenges of the latest semiconductor chip technology nodes. A crucial next step is to integrate this powerful analysis with lifetime prediction models to forecast and prevent typical failures in these electronics systems."
