Electronic devices today are remarkably reliable, but that reliability is no accident. It stems from skilled design and engineering and a rigorous design process powered by advanced simulation and multiphysics analysis. When companies skip or underinvest in simulation at the design stage, they take an enormous risk, often resulting in failures late in the design cycle, during testing, or in the field—where they're far more costly and damaging.

As devices become more compact, powerful, and precise, traditional single-domain analysis falls short. Most real-world failures arise from interactions between electrical, thermal, and mechanical domains.

This guide explores six real-world failure modes that can be prevented with an integrated, multiphysics simulation strategy. From thermal runaway to mechanical stress fractures to gradual deterioration due to multiphysics interactions, each example highlights how Altair® SimLab®, together with other Altair tools such as Altair® PSIM™ (power simulation) can help identify risks early, reduce costly redesigns, and ensure robust performance from the first prototype.

Presentation by Kamila Klug, Director, Business Development Material Solutions and Farhad Behafarid, Director, Electronics Thermal with Altair as part of Altair's Simulate at the Speed of Design 2025 conference.

Altair SimLab is a comprehensive multiphysics platform designed to streamline the end-to-end workflow from CAD to results, with a particular focus on electrification and electronics design. By integrating multiple solvers and advanced pre/post-processing in a user-friendly environment, SimLab enables fast, accurate analysis for thermal and mechanical reliability in electronics. This session explores its application in accelerating electronics design through seamless CAD and multiphysics integration.

Myway aimed to validate Altair’s thermal simulation solution against its own physical test data for a Rohm silicon carbide (SiC) inverter. Two key challenges had to be addressed: heat Loss calculation and thermal path and airflow management. Myway found that Altair's PSIM-SimLab workflow delivered accurate predictions that aligned with real-life data, providing insights for streamlining development time.

Presented by Alice Lin, Manager Mechanics at GN Audio (China) Ltd., as part of Altair's Simulate at the Speed of Design 2025 conference.

In the realm of consumer electronics, rapidly innovating novel products has always been a challenge. Conventional simulation software's preprocessing phase has proven time-consuming, especially when dealing with complex models like full device drops.

Furthermore, the limitations of single-purpose solvers, e.g. separate purchases are required for structural and fluid analysis, have constrained the potential of simulation engineers.

Since 2018, Jabra started using Altair software in product design. By adopting SimLab, the preprocessing efficiency has been improved obviously, allow simulation experts saving time to delve new problem domains. SimLab also functions as a versatile preprocessing tool for fluid and thermal simulations, thus also can be used to solve thermal management challenges. Additionally, the software supports Design of Experiments (DOE) and topology optimization, enabling refined design enhancements. Empowered by Altair software, even a small-scale simulation team can seamlessly address an array of concerns encompassing structural, thermal, and even optical simulations.