Virtual Prototyping & Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) in Industrial Design Processes on the Basis of Mobile Device Terminals

During the product design and development phase of mobile telecommunications equipment (MTE) it is crucial to assess and predict potential failures of the device at an early stage and in particular prior to mass production. This study investigated whether enhanced TCAD environments, combined with automation and Genetic Algorithm based optimization, can proof its value to identify failure modes and their effects to RF performance. The validation is presented based on a quadband phone which was introduced into market recently. The study finally demonstrates that speed and feature enhanced TCAD tools exceed the use as a common simulation platform and revealed its value as a predictive engineering tool for product development environment.