Online event as an alternative to the live congress

Following the ban on public events due to the coronavirus pandemic, a number of organizations are now offering online alternatives. One of the first events of this kind in the electronics industry was Zuken Innovation World Germany Digital 2020, which set an example for others to follow.

Zuken Innovation World 2020 Digital was organized by Zuken as a replacement for the Zuken Innovation World Live congress originally planned in Darmstadt. Designed as a series of webinars, ZIW Deutschland Digital included the most important of the planned presentations. It also started on the planning date of the live event and was even free of charge for participants. ZIW Deutschland Digital set a new record with 325 participants (excluding Zuken employees).

The webinar concept

Since a live event cannot be converted 1:1 into a webinar, Zuken's content was spread over 2 weeks and 3 days per week, each lasting 1.5 hours. This was not only much more pleasant for the participants than watching a webinar non-stop for hours in their (home) office, but also more effective for their learning success. The Zuken webinar concept is therefore exemplary. The presentations were divided into 3 tracks on key topics:

• Electrical Engineering - New features and suggestions for the daily use of E3.series and DS-E3
• Electronic Engineering - New features and suggestions for the daily use of CR-8000 and DS-CR
• Digital Engineering - Experts from science and industry provide insights into future scenarios of digital product development

The Electrical Engineering and Electronic Engineering tracks, which were attended by Zuken experts, took place in parallel. The Digital Engineering track was staggered so that there was no overlap with the other tracks.

The content covered

The Electrical Engineering track comprised the following contributions and topics:

• Achim Stirner provided information on the highlights of the current E3.series 2020.
• Achim Wenzelburger and Holger Sielaff explained the control cabinet design with E3.panel.
• Bernd Bross and Bernd Schlenk discussed the E3.ComponentCloud configuration.
• Markus Neubauer spoke about the E3.series PLM integration.
• Uwe Schütz presented how the new E³.formboard Advance module can be used to generate wire harness data for production and assembly. It supports the parallel development of circuit diagrams and wire harnesses as well as variant management and data import from external systems.
• Reinhold Blank spoke about automatically generated circuit diagrams for diagnostics in service.
• Reinhold Blank also spoke about the E3.3DTransformer MCAD collaboration.

The Electronic Engineering track featured the following presentations and information:

• Marcel Voges provided information on the highlights of the CR-8000 2020, starting with a product overview and then explaining the new features of the Design Gateway and Design Force tools for virtual multi-board prototyping. For example, SI or PI analysis with a 2D field solver can be carried out simultaneously with the layout by clicking on the conductor. He also discussed Advanced Design for Manufacturing with over 800 rule checks and the DS CR options for workflow integration. Among other things, the costs of an article can be displayed in the circuit diagram.
• Ralf Brüning looked at the technological development and the resulting increasing demand for SI/PI analyses as well as their principles and practice. The Zuken High Speed Designflow with CR-8000 supports design-accompanying simulation, i.e. a design process for HV PCBs in which signal and power integrity and EMC conformity analyses are carried out simultaneously with the layout and what happens if a requirement/rule cannot be met is also displayed.
• Herbert Ritthaler described details of the constraint specification in CR-8000.
• Library and design data management with DS-CR was explained by Michael Flügel. In addition to the circuit diagram, layout and parts list, the libraries are also compared, including metadata updates, so that all variants can be accessed at once (e.g. in the event of obsolescence) and the required production data records can be created automatically.
• Jim DeLap, Ansys, explained the Ansys-CR-8000 direct integration.
• Werner Rissiek and Manfred Vogt used examples to describe how user-specific functions and interfaces are implemented. They also explained the associated project management and the available ad-on tools.
• Torsten Armerding demonstrated the possibilities of multiboard layout in 3D, including the associated checks. These include, for example, collision checks and checks of the isolation distance between the design objects.

The digital engineering track covered everything from complexity management to AI applications

Dr. Christian Dölle, Machine Tool Laboratory WZL at RWTH Aachen University, spoke on the first day about holistic complexity management. He began by emphasizing that digitizing a bad process results in a bad digital process. The overall complexity increases exponentially as functional, product program and network complexity increase. This is why complexity management has now become an obligation for companies. The desired solution is not the avoidance of complexity but the identification of optimum complexity. Variant management in the product program makes it possible to control market-side complexity. Distributing the costs in line with their origin supports portfolio profitability. Internal and external diversity must be coordinated. This coordination supports the development of a modular logic to increase profitability. The design of modular product kits is a central component of complexity management. This should not be carried out by the development department alone, as a holistic view of the value chain is necessary. This means that the modular system should not be realized as a standard, but rather communicated, based on the customer's requirements.

Digital twin, digital thread, PLM and MBSE are buzzwords that are being used more and more frequently. Oliver Hechtl, Head of Strategic DM/ & I Solutions at Zuken GmbH, explained these. He said that the digital twin is the supreme discipline, as it simulates and feeds back reality. The prerequisite is the robustness of the process and successful digitalization requires partial digitalization. This is because many approaches are complementary in many respects and, if used with moderation and purpose, can help to channel information flows not only in product development in industry but also in complex IT projects.

On the third day, Prof. Dr. Gerd Ganteför, University of Constance, gave the keynote speech 'Science fiction today - reality tomorrow. At the frontiers of knowledge and beyond'. He dispelled the widespread opinion that science can no longer expect any major discoveries. But research never ends. After all, there are thousands of unanswered and very exciting questions such as: 'Is there an end to the world?', 'Are we doomed to grow old and weak and die?' and the question of the existence of extraterrestrial life. He used examples to illustrate the current state of research and technology. Now comes nanotechnology and AI and their applications. He concluded the lecture with the limits of knowledge and visions for the future. He listed room-temperature superconductors, black mini-holes and dark energy as energy visions.

Heinrich Dotzauer, founder and Managing Director of pan42, provided information on the (legacy) data transfer to e3.series and CR-8000. In the course of integrating acquired companies or parts of companies, harmonizing heterogeneous system landscapes or switching to a modern CAD system, large amounts of existing data usually have to be converted and migrated. Pan42 has more than 20 years of experience in the transfer of E-CAD data between different design systems. The various options and the procedure for data migration to the latest version of Zuken E3.series and CR-8000 were explained.

In the last presentation, André Alcalde, Chief Product Officer CELUS - Contunity GmbH, explained how the AI-supported generation of PCB designs was realized. With the platform developed by CELUS, the HW design of the PCB can now be generated as easily as SW in an automated process.