Business scale up of an AI tool for the optimal design of power converters

Description of the action context

Industrial manufacturers of electronic devices face the problem of redesigning the power electronics for each new product to be launched to the market. The bottleneck for this is in the magnetic components of the power converters. This takes around 6 months, and the resulting designs are almost never satisfactory. The same design methods have been used for the last decades, and they generate delays and excessive costs during manufacturing and hold back the advancements in power electronics.

The objective of the project is a cutting-edge platform (https://frenetic.ai/) for design of magnetics that helps designing much faster and without the need for many engineering iterations. Afterwards, our clients will be able to contract the production directly from manufacturers participating in the marketplace of the platform.

Objectives of the work performed

Building a platform capable of designing the magnetic devices in minutes with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence models. These models are trained with data from the laboratory and provide quickly optimal results for the specifications of magnetics.

Developing a marketplace in the platform to get manufacturers involved to provide the designer with quotations for manufacturing of their designs. As the specifications in the platform are uniform for all clients and manufacturers this makes possible to speed up the technical process.

To fully develop the two objectives above it is necessary, not only, considering the technical aspects of computational models and laboratory measurements, but also getting the industry involved in the marketplace which is useful for all clients and manufacturers.

The Platform Frenetic Online was launched in Dec. 2020 and since then has been continuously upgraded by adding new features and improving with new characteristics available for magnetics design and connect all stakeholders. The main components of the Platform are: simulator (which includes a datasheet section to collect all technical specifications related to the design, as well as additional assembly instructions and a measurement database). This is supplemented by a Lbirary of Reference Designs that can be used as an initial step to create new designs or used as such if the design fits the user requirements. The Community page is a forum where all the users can participate to Exchange information and knowledge.

Frenetic has set-up a laboratory for constructing samples which allows us to train the AI models for magnetics design. The training data measured in the laboratory are supplemented by modelled data from FEM calculations, and other generated by means of Genetic algorithms.

The magnetic community has embraced this new platform with all the interesting possibilities that offers. Among the participants and users of our platform there are designers as well as manufacturers. This will allow that the Platform becomes a full Marketplace where the users and manufacturers can determine the technical specification required for a magnetic device and also place purchase orders through the platform itself.

Several contacts have been done with companies in the USA, and some of them have already purchase licenses and are active members of the Frenetic Online Platform. The results and methodologies have been presented in the two major congresses and trade-fairs of the Power Electronics field during Spring 2022 (namely, APEC 2022 and PCIM 2022).

The project developed will create a new category in the power electronics market. Traditionally, engineers have been working without cloud tools and manufacturers without technology. With Frenetic, a new market arises, Frenetic platform will allow Engineers to design magnetic components and connect with manufacturers in a common place, with a common language. In a multicultural industry, the standardization of the process will create business around. Engineers will contact manufacturers for building their magnetics and manufacturers will offer their best technologies to the industry through Frenetic.

To further expand the reach of the Platform a colaboración with SIMBA (a circuit simulator) has allowed us to integrate this within our Platform, so that the designers can generate directly the input design parameters required to specify the functionality of the magnetic device included in the electronic circuit). In the future this integration will be more direct, and designers would be able to jump from the high-level requirements of the circuit and the specific requirements of the included magnetic components.

As a proof of the relevance of the new market generated, several investing firms have participated in the company as well as big corporates. In conclusion, a new economy around the power electronics industry will be possible.

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FRENETIC (Business scale up of an AI tool for the optimal design of power converters)

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