36th Chemnitz Seminar

Currently, virtual techniques and digital twins are gaining great momentum and widespread in the electronics industry for a most efficient design for reliability of electrical modules and systems. Several major German and European projects are addressing this issue specifically, e.g. TRACE (2015-2019), iRel4.0 (2020-2023), PowerizeD (2023-2025).

The work of Dr. Rainer Dudek has been a very decisive pioneer for this entire development. Over the past 30 years, his internationally outstanding research has been instrumental in introducing and methodically developing state-of-the-art numerical simulation for describing the essential electro-thermo-mechanical stresses that ultimately determine the lifetime of electronic systems. His work has always been based on comprehensive experimental investigations to determine the necessary material and geometry data and to validate the simulation results. This has enabled the lifetime estimates to achieve the precision that allows determining the optimal design of new electronic products by virtual prototyping. Dr. Rainer Dudek has been able to disseminate this revolutionary methodology extensively in countless direct collaborations with industry and in more than 160 international technical articles, which have now been referenced by almost 2000 further authors worldwide.

The Chemnitz Seminar highlights essential aspects of this outstanding work and would like to express its sincere gratitude to Dr. Rainer Dudek for his great achievements and lasting contributions. It also gives an outlook on future developments, which he will continue to actively shape.