Using advanced simulation solutions to optimize reliability and performance of next-generation smart home devices

Developing reliable smart cameras

Based in Taiwan, GOLDTek specializes in developing and manufacturing domestic electronic products that require portability, reliability and low power consumption, such as smart doorbells, smart door locks and home surveillance cameras.

One of GOLDTek’s goals was to establish itself as a brand known for developing reliable smart outdoor surveillance cameras The key to earning customer trust and building a strong corporate identity in this market segment is providing outstanding product performance and consistent reliability.

With a top priority of faster time-to-market of their new intelligent (artificial intelligence enabled) surveillance camera, GOLDTek faced several critical design challenges. The device needed to operate reliably in extreme outdoor environments, where environmental factors such as intense solar heating could impact both reliability and lifespan. This requires robust thermal management to minimize chip temperatures and ensure compliance with certification standards. Accurately predicting temperature is essential to prevent damage or performance issues. Additionally, the camera’s materials and electronics must withstand excessive force during physical installation, an important consideration that also needed to be addressed early in the design process.

Initially, the company relied on traditional physical testing methods to validate its designs. However, it quickly realized that these approaches were too time-consuming and limited in scope, prompting the need for a more advanced simulation-driven solution to meet its performance and time-to-market goals.

To meet these goals, GOLDTek turned to Siemens Digital Industries Software’s Simcenter™ software and Simcenter hardware to help them adopt a more predictive and simulation-driven digital twin strategy. This approach enables companies to accurately simulate, monitor and optimize products or systems in a virtual environment before they are built or modified in the real world. Simcenter is part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

To implement these changes, GOLDTek worked with EFD Corporation, a trusted Siemens channel partner with over 10 years of expertise in advanced thermal and mechanical simulation.

Seamless data transfer fuels product innovation

The first challenge GOLDTek had to tackle was transferring data from one software solution to another to carry out the simulations. This step would typically involve time-consuming and often unreliable file reformatting, conversions, simplification and translations. GOLDTek needed a simulation solution that allowed them to continue working with their current computer-aided design (CAD) software.

With Simcenter FLOEFD™ software, GOLDTek was able to simplify and speed up their simulation and design process since the version was fully embedded in their 3D CAD software. This meant that models created by their mechanical designers could be directly used for thermal, airflow and stress analyses in Simcenter FLOEFD without any geometry simplifications or data conversion.

“The seamless integration of Simcenter FlOEFD into our existing CAD environment allowed us to run thermal and mechanical simulations without switching platforms,” says Patrick Chiang, president of GOLDTek. “This cut down our development time by 60 percent.”

In addition to seamless data transfer, GOLDTek’s engineers and designers found Simcenter FLOEFD had a short learning curve. They were able to continue working in their familiar CAD environment for thermal and mechanical analyses of the designs, which helped to significantly reduce the product development time.

One solution for thermal and mechanical simulation

Supported by EFD’s technical expertise, GOLDTek’s engineering team used Simcenter FLOEFD to simulate both thermal and structural behavior early in the design process. This capability enabled them to detect potential issues related to environmental testing – specifically across all temperature and humidity extremes – well in advance. As a result, they were able to implement optimization measures proactively, streamlining development and improving product reliability.

“Right from the beginning, EFD provided hands-on support, showing how Simcenter FLOEFD could be used to carry out thermal and flow simulations, accelerate thermal design and provide more accurate, faster thermomechanical stress analysis,” says Roscoe Huang, assistant manager, mechanical engineering department.

CAD models of chips and LEDs typically show accurate external geometry, but lack internal details like the die, die attach and substrate, components that are critical for predicting junction temperatures. Since chip vendors often consider this data proprietary, designers face challenges ensuring thermal reliability without it. To address the lack of thermal data for chip internals, GOLDTek used measurement data from Simcenter Micred™ T3STER™ hardware, which captures the internal thermal resistances and capacitances with thermal transient testing. Their LED vendor had already performed these tests and shared the data, which enabled it to be directly imported into Simcenter FLOEFD, eliminating the need to model internal chip structures. The accuracy of these predictions was validated against prototype tests, with results consistently within ±1.5 Celsius (°C) of measured values, giving GOLDTek strong confidence in their baseline thermal model.

GOLDTek also required a rigorous testing process for its smart camera. Using Simcenter FLOEFD, GOLDTek carried out two different types of simulations: thermal and structural simulations.

The software offers a cost-effective way of identifying and fixing problems during the development phase and exploring design improvements. GOLDTek was able to automate design parameter optimization with the extended design exploration capabilities of Simcenter FLOEFD.

The smart camera is to be sold worldwide. Consequently, the GOLDTek design engineers had to consider the adverse effects of temperature extremes and additional heat gain on the camera’s external surfaces due to exposure to the sun. The external heat gain will affect the temperatures of the camera’s internals. GOLDTek was able to test the performance under extreme heat, replicating 27 different angles of possible solar radiation. These different angles represented different times of day at different locations on earth.

The camera is designed for easy mounting via a ball-and-socket pin joint attached to a wall-mounted bracket. Due to the bracket material, the risk of breakage from excessive installation force had to be considered. Designers performed stress analysis on the full assembly to ensure sufficient part thickness to prevent damage.

“With Simcenter FLOEFD, we can run thermal and structural simulations, enabling early detection of environmental problems and implement optimization design countermeasures,” says Huang.

Measurable time and cost benefits

“By implementing Simcenter FLOEFD for simulation testing during the R&D phase of product design, we were able to shorten the product development cycle by up to 60 percent, which translated to six months in real time, as well as saving $50,000 on prototyping,” says Chiang.

“Introducing validation of thermal and structural performance earlier in development helped GOLDTek to confidently bring a reliable product to market faster,” says Jay Chien, chief executive officer (CEO) of EFD Corporation.

GOLDTek hopes to devote more resources to advancing its core competence in artificial intelligence and cloud technologies, pushing its original equipment manufacturer (OEM), original design manufacturer (ODM), and joint development manufacturer (JDM) services to an artificial intelligence (AI) enabled level to satisfy the growing demands of its global customers.