Ansoft Releases Maxwell 9.0 - First Integrated, State-of-the-Art Simulation Software for Electromagnetic, Electromechanical, Mechatronic, and Power-Electronic Design

    PITTSBURGH--May 23, 2002--Ansoft Corporation released a new version of its Maxwell(R) software, delivering the world's first integrated simulation environment dedicated to solving complex electromechanical, power-electronic, and mechatronic system designs commonly found in the transportation, aerospace, and power industries.
    "Ansoft's electromechanical (EM) goal is to provide a simulation environment that accurately predicts the complex interactions between electromagnetic components, power-electronic circuits, and controllers that originate from different physical domains and that are created by engineers in a wide range of disciplines," said Mark Ravenstahl, Ansoft's Product Marketing Manager, EM Products. "With this release of Maxwell, Ansoft has delivered the first comprehensive solution for industries faced with multi-technology design issues."
    "The ability to integrate electromagnetic, thermo-electromechanical, circuit, and system simulations within a unified environment greatly enhances power electronics research and development efforts and drastically reduces product design cycles. Ansoft is playing an important role in this integrated design process," said Fred C. Lee, Director of the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES), a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, headquartered at Virginia Tech University.
    Maxwell 9.0 is capable of solving three-dimensional (3D) applications that involve voltage or current sources with arbitrary waveforms important for the design of Non-Destructive Evaluation, MRI, and power-transformer equipment. Version 9 also introduces the ability to calculate core loss, including the eddy, excess, and hysteresis loss of materials. This is an extremely useful feature for engineers who develop advanced electromagnetic brakes and clutches used in the transportation industry.
    New 3D thermal capabilities provide steady-state thermal analysis capability, including convection and radiation and one-way coupling between Maxwell's AC Magnetic module and thermal field analysis. Engineers may use power- and core-loss information obtained in the AC Magnetic solver as an input source for the thermal solver to obtain the complete thermal profile of a device. This capability is especially important for today's electronic designs, where physical size is decreasing and frequency is increasing, causing temperatures to rise beyond expectations.
    With the new Maxwell release, Ansoft delivers the second in the plan of development milestones for integrating Ansoft's core strength of electromagnetic-field simulation with SIMPLORER(R), its new system analysis tool, which provides circuit, block diagram, and state-machine simulation languages.
    To learn more about Maxwell products, visit www.ansoft.com/products.cfm.

    About Ansoft

    Ansoft is a leading developer of high-performance electronic design automation (EDA) software. Engineers use Ansoft software to design state-of-the-art products, such as standard automotive components and systems, 42-volt systems, hybrid cars, electric vehicles, drive-by-wire systems, power electronics, wireless products, integrated circuits (ICs), and printed circuit boards (PCBs). Ansoft markets its software worldwide through its own direct sales force and has comprehensive customer-support and training offices throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. For more information, please visit www.ansoft.com.
    Maxwell is a registered trademark of Ansoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.