Collaboration between NCS and 'Digital Twin' Technology
Prediction Technology through Virtual Replication and Simulation
Effect of Reducing Product Development Time and Cost
LG Innotek is accelerating its digital transformation by partnering with the global engineering simulation company Ansys.
On the 8th, LG Innotek announced that it will expand the application of 'Digital Twin' technology across all processes in collaboration with Ansys. Digital Twin is a technology that replicates objects identically in a virtual space to predict situations that may occur in reality through computer simulation. It has recently gained attention as a technology to solve various industrial and social problems. It is actively being adopted in the manufacturing sector as it can reduce the time and cost involved in product development.
Ansys is the leading company in the global engineering market. It is recognized as a company with world-class technology and implementation experience in simulation fields utilizing 3D modeling, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
Through cooperation with Ansys, LG Innotek is expected to build a world-class digital twin environment by utilizing the latest digital twin solutions and simulation software.
Previously, LG Innotek piloted the application of digital twin technology in some development and production processes with Ansys, achieving visible results. LG Innotek is also seeing significant benefits from digital twin technology in research and development (R&D). It conducts design verification in a virtual environment and minimizes the number of actual experiments and time based on that data. For example, LG Innotek applied digital twin technology to the development of semiconductor package substrate (PS) products, reducing the development period by up to 99%. Since it is important to minimize warpage caused by heat and pressure during the manufacturing process of substrates, simulation processes optimizing combinations such as circuit design structure and material composition ratios are necessary. LG Innotek shortened the time to predict the warpage of a single substrate from 11 days to 3.6 hours through virtual simulation using 3D modeling.
In addition to product development, digital twin technology was expanded to the flip chip ball grid array (FC-BGA) production process. This enabled setting the FC-BGA process equipment to optimal conditions, successfully halving the ramp-up period (the initial mass production yield improvement period to increase production capacity). Previously, finding the optimal FC-BGA process conditions required significant time and cost, involving hundreds of tests.
Moreover, LG Innotek applied digital twin technology to the 'soldering' process, a key process for securing reliability in automotive components. The soldering process was simulated in a virtual space to predict the time until cracks occur in the solder. By optimizing process conditions such as solder application amount and nozzle design to delay the occurrence of cracks as much as possible, productivity is planned to increase by about 40% compared to before.
LG Innotek plans to further expand digital twin technology to the development and production processes of all product lines, including autonomous driving parts such as vehicle connectivity and sensing. There is also a plan to extend the application of digital twin technology, applied throughout the entire value chain from development to production, to customers and partners. All data generated in the virtual space will be collected in real time and used for product design and customer process improvement. Artificial intelligence (AI) will be applied to virtual design and quality process verification to enhance simulation speed and accuracy. AI will learn from the data collected through simulation to derive optimal solutions and support engineers' decision-making.
No Seung-won, Chief Technology Officer (CTO, Executive Vice President), said, "The future LG Innotek envisions is meta-manufacturing, where simulation results from virtual space are linked with physical production facilities to automatically proceed to actual production." He added, "We will rapidly integrate advanced digital twin technology across the entire value chain, including R&D, production, and quality control, to create differentiated customer value."
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