A European research initiative called PowerizeD focuses on boosting the intelligence of power electronics to make them more efficient. As part of the initiative, Ansys will demonstrate the power of digital twins through new workflows that can increase efficiency, reduce development costs, and contribute to decarbonisation efforts.

The project, initiated and coordinated by long-time Ansys customer Infineon Technologies AG (Infineon), is expected to contribute to European decarbonisation and climate protection by improving the sustainability and resilience of the European energy chain.

Reliability issues in power electronics can often be traced back to thermal stress, which can be predicted and then mitigated via new compact digital twin workflows. These workflows are based on Ansys Twin Builder and Ansys optiSLang, relying on metamodels built with Ansys Fluent, Ansys Mechanical, Ansys Sherlock, and Ansys Electronics Desktop. Using this approach with PowerizeD, Ansys will demonstrate how development time and costs can be saved by eliminating unnecessary prototypes and testing, while extending the useful life cycle of power electronics devices.

“We have to make highly efficient use of energy if we are to achieve net-zero climate protection goals. Digitalisation can help here as a highly decisive lever for more energy efficiency,” said Constanze Hufenbecher, chief digital transformation officer at Infineon. “We are pleased to combine our strengths with the strengths of so many excellent partners from research and business to jointly make the ambitious European research initiative PowerizeD a success.”

“Power electronics is key to energy transformation and is used anywhere and everywhere that electricity is generated, transferred, and used efficiently,” said Dr. Rutger Wijburg, chief operations officer at Infineon. “The broad spectrum of power electronics applications makes it very important that we collaborate with partners across the boundaries of corporate entities and organisations to jointly advance Europe as an innovation engine.”
The immediate PowerizeD project objectives include:

  • Reduction of power loss in power conversion by 25 percent
  • Extension of the service lives of devices and systems by 30 percent
  • Reduction of chip size by at least 10 percent
  • Shortening development times by a challenging 50 percent