The time of defining requirements is over, and Productive4.0 is in its first innovation cycle. One of the first results that came up is the blueprint for an online B2B platform making customers’ businesses easier. The so called Solution Finder is developed by Infineon in workpackage 7 Task 7.3. Other projects partners are still working on similar tools, so at the end of the day they all can mutually stimulate each other.

The basic idea of the Solution Finder reminds a little of the product search on Amazon, but way better and faster. Take a producer of goods like washing machines, drilling machines or devices such as windshield wipers and others used in cars. When they look for the right sort of chip to actuate a motor in order to achieve an optimized performance, they have to make sure not to buy a pig in a poke.

Considering the service range of approx. 10,000 semiconductor products big providers have in store, all for different currents, voltages and application loadings, the right selection can be quite challenging. This is even more the case when a customer wants to develop a new product.

Until now, a service representative would come by for advisory support. With Solution Finder, the whole process of analyzing, selecting and purchasing will be a lot easier. Trial and error can be avoided simply by using the simulation part of the communication tool. For a pre-test the customer will enter his specific parameters, and then he can try out all kinds of possibilities and deployment variants.

Simulation for Innovation

One of the important indicators on the simulation tool is the maximum junction temperature. If a semiconductor gets too hot and if the system is oversized it will start to fail earlier. If in a simulation run a different chip turns out to be more appropriate, this will be the one to buy. In order to achieve the best configuration, it may on top be assessed against alternative options.

“Our simulations will be expanded and improved”, Norbert Imlig from Infineon’s task team says. It is a beginning but it shows how digital twins can save costs and inspire for completely new products. The approach of Solution Finder: it combines the product level, application level and simulations in one tool. It is easier in a way that a customer does not necessarily have to know the system with all its categories and individual finders.

In the future, after using the Solution Finder a few times, it will automatically adapt to the needs of a user making the handling even easier and come up with valuable suggestions. With its predictive and interactive character a lot more potential customers can be addressed, even smaller engineering companies and non-expert customers.