Power electronics training uses virtual manufacturing
SemiWise in Scotland is leading a consortium to develop training for power electronics engineers using virtual manufacturing techniques.
A grant of £345,000 from Innovate UK will see Glasgow-based SemiWise use EDA tools from Synopsys coupled with remote learning and face-to-face contact without the need for manufacturing training facilities which can be expensive and limit the number of engineers that can be trained.
The need for such courses has been identified by the National Microelectronics Institute (NMI) in numerous surveys and meetings with its power electronics manufacturing industry members. As a member of this consortium, NMI will ensure that the courses will meet in full the requirements of the UK power electronics industry.
The power electronics industry in particular is facing an acute training and recruitment shortage as older engineers retire.
The project, called “Virtual Manufacturing Based Power Electronics Design and Manufacturing Training Courses,” will be based around the Sentaurus Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) and Synopsys Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) tools for power electronics.
This allows hands-on training with face-to-face, Zoom and on-demand web-based delivery across silicon (Si), silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) power electronics devices, which are all of interest to UK power electronics manufacturers.
“SemiWise is delighted to play a key role in this project, developing the courses and the virtual manufacturing-based laboratories and delivering the training. The project will strongly benefit from the expertise of Synopsys in this field as well as by the use of the Sentaurus TCAD and DTCO solutions,” said Professor Asen Asenov, CEO of SemiWise, who is also the James Watt Professor of Electrical Engineering at Glasgow University.
“We believe that this project will deliver significant competitive advantage to the power electronics industry in the UK.”
SemiWise develops low-power CMOS transistor-level IP that improves performance and variability and reduces power consumption. The company also offers simulation services and consulting to the semiconductor industry including fables, IEDM and foundry players.
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Asenov was the founder of Gold Standard Simulations (GSS), a 2010 start-up from the University of Glasgow which developed the first TCAD based Design-Technology Co Optimisation (DTCO) tool chain. After the acquisition of GSS by Synopsys in 2016 the TCAD-to-Spice technology originally developed by GSS is now part of the Synopsys TCAD offering in the TCAD-to-Spice flow and continues to be developed by the Synopsys R&D division in Glasgow
“This will help address some of the skills issues that we are facing by training new graduates, and by upskilling and reskilling existing employees, in an industry that is finding it difficult to attract new and experienced talent,” said Jillian Hughes, NMI network director. “This is a course which is unique and can be tailored to individual needs, as it is not taught in any university program, and I am excited to be part of this.”
This work was funded by Driving the Electric Revolution, an ISCF Challenge delivered by UK Research and Innovation.
www.semiconductorwise.com; www.synopsys.com/silicon/tcad.html
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