Course info

Design Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (D-FMEA) helps to foresee design issues and to mitigate them at early stages of product development. Best practice of D-FMEA for power electronics design is believed to be of general benefits to the power electronic converter designer across industries and academic research.  Based on engineering case studies, this course will introduce a systematical way to perform D-FMEA and its important aspects.  Participants will bring their own designs to the course, and will leave with hands-on experiences in building up D-FMEA of their specific applications. The course will mainly cover the following aspects:  

1. Introduction to D-FMEA and systems engineering  
2. How to formulate functions and failures, link causes and effects, and score risk  
3. Examples applicable of mega-watt power converter 
4. Training in software tool for D-FMEA (IQ-FMEA) and free-of-charge use of tool for duration of course 
5. Hands on exercises of selected projects from course participants (teams or individuals) 

Day 1 – Introduction of D-FMEA, Systems Engineering (Lecturers: Philip C. Kjær, Rui Wu, and Huai Wang, 08:30 – 16:30) 

• 08:30 – 09:00 Welcome, introduction to the course 
• 09:00 – 10:30 Introduction to D-FMEA 
• 10:30 – 12:00 Introduction to systems engineering 
• 12:00 – 13:00 Lunch 
• 13:00 – 15:30 Exercise on functions & failures 
• 15:30 – 16:30 Participant team project support 

Day 4 – Participant Team Project Implementation and Exercises (it is mainly performed intensively by the course participants in teams, lecturers can provide support upon the request, otherwise, no formal lecturers on this day) 

Day 5 – Participant Team Project Presentations and Discussions (Lecturers: Philip C. Kjær, Rui Wu, and Huai Wang, 08:30 – 16:30) 

Prerequisites: 

1. Pre-reading the shared materials 
2. Participants should choose their own products for studying in the course, which should be: 
   1. a product at an adequate complexity level within power electronics area, for instance, a EMI filter, a Print circuit board (PCB), a magnetic component, discrete semiconductors, a heat sink or a liquid cooling system;  
   1. a product with new designs, or a product with modifications to the exist design, or a exist product needs FMEA analysis 
3. Participants should form a DFMEA team inside their institutes/companies for their design, including: a core team - designers of the product, a support team - assembly, manufacturing, design, analysis/test, reliability, materials, quality, service, and suppliers, as well as designers responsible for the next higher system. 
4. Participants should be aware of the customers’ requirements/ expectations on their products.   

Form of evaluation:  A DFMEA report on the participants’ own project (teams or individuals) 

Course literature:  

1. Handouts prepared by the lecturers (20 pages)  
2. INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook (about 50 pages for key contents to this course)  
3. Effective FMEA (about 50 pages for key contents relevant to this course)