The future of microelectronic production is now beginning

As a pioneer in the industry, AT&S has started a new “Virtual First” campaign: The Styrian microelectronic group wants to revolutionize the way he designs, develops and tests the hardware for its customers. In addition to traditional physical prototyping, which rely on slow and tedious iteration processes, AT&S will use simulation and digital design tools whenever possible. The company can therefore react faster to new customer needs without incurring high costs for adapting and repeated manufacturing of physical demonstration devices. Virtual Development shortens the time frame for the development of new electronic systems by weeks and even months, which is reflected directly in cost savings for the company and its customers.

The introduction of virtual development was carefully planned because it required a lot of preparatory work. AT&S has built up a unique, proprietary database with detailed analyzes of all relevant materials over many years of work. At the same time, an excellent simulation team was put together at the company headquarters in Leoben, Styria, which has brought together the local developments and the efforts that have already been made at other AT & S locations worldwide. The experts: inside had access to the latest hardware and software to refine the virtual tools to simulate the mechanical, thermal and electrical behavior of materials and electronic systems. This coordinated global effort made it possible to act quickly: the new virtual toolbox, which comprises more than 40 tools, is available to all engineers: inside of the company since 2024.

Virtual becomes real

For AT&S, virtual development is a powerful new tool that will complement the existing methods at all locations in the future. The tools and the necessary know-how are available, so that at & s can again expand the limits of microelectronic development with another innovative approach.

“Virtual development is a strategic opportunity to be one step ahead of our competition, to shorten our market launch times and minimize our ecological footprint. We can be really proud of the excellent skills that we have developed through the contribution of our expert: inside at all of our locations. This is the heart of our efforts to develop faster, better and more environmentally friendly microelectronics together with our customers. No competitor can keep up with what we have built here, and our teams will support all locations worldwide in the introduction of virtual development. This can herald a paradigm shift for the entire industry “said AT&S CTO Peter Griehsnig.