Business Area Design Methodology

Today’s electronic systems often consist of complex hard- and software components that need to work reliably over many years without noticeable malfunctions. In addition, they are supposed to fulfill a wide range of challenging requirements, such as very low energy consumption or high computing power while operating in harsh environments. Through the increasing integration density of the systems and the use of state-of-the-art semiconductor technologies, moreover, physical effects have a stronger impact on the features of a product. Meanwhile, the proliferation of functions makes it hard for developers to maintain an overview of the coupling between subcomponents, making it especially challenging to master them.

Gaining mastery of them requires the use of new design methods and comprehensive tool support. As such, our scientists are working on identifying gaps in the design flow and closing them through the use of innovative tools and services. This begins with the unambiguous definition and traceable implementation of the specification in the product realization, and ranges all the way to the prediction of the effects that technological influences will have on system performance. The goal is an end-to-end virtually supported design flow. This is the only way to ensure that the systems that are developed conform to the required specification across all design steps and that faults are detected before production begins. This can prevent dangerous field failures, avoid very costly repetitions of design cycles and shorten development times.

Our work is focused on complex safety-critical electronics with high requirements regarding quality, robustness and reliability, which are applied in long-lasting, functionally safe products.