Mentor Graphics Corporation announced that it has joined the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) at Virginia Tech, the industry consortium dedicated to improving electrical power processing and distribution across various systems. CPES is focused on technologies and applications related to power electronic components: vehicular power conversion, power conversion technologies, power management, and renewable energy systems. CPES has a global reputation for advanced research in power electronics with 78 members who contribute and participate in the organization's mission, including Toyota, GE, Fairchild, Cree, Rohm, and Mitsubishi.
Commenting on the recent MicReD® Industrial Power Tester 1500A solution from Mentor, Professor G. Q. Lu, CPES affiliate faculty and professor in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, who has collaborated with Mentor Graphics, stated, "We expect Mentor's ability to perform reliability testing of wide-bandgap SiC power electronics devices to be a unique resource for CPES, leveraging its proven technologies to advance the power and performance of semiconductors, IGBTs, MOSFETs and other devices in our industry. We welcome Mentor Graphics' software contribution and combined expertise in semiconductor thermal simulation and measurement that benefit the development of reliable power electronics components and systems."
Mentor Graphics membership supports expanded use of electronics thermal design simulation software and industry adoption of thermal characterization methods for power semiconductor lifetime prediction and thermal testing. Mentor Graphics is also donating simulation software including market-leading FloTHERM® and FloTHERM XT electronics thermal analysis software and FloEFD® general purpose concurrent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software.
"We are honored to be a member of CPES and our technologies are in perfect alignment with the organization's mission," stated Roland Feldhinkel, general manager of Mentor Graphics Mechanical Analysis Division. "The collaboration with the global member companies and researchers will provide tremendous gains for the power electronics systems industry and its customers, and we believe Mentor's technology will be a valued contributor for these advancements."
