ANSYS announced that it has acquired substantially all the assets of DfR Solutions, the developer of Sherlock, the industry's only automated design reliability analysis software. ANSYS' comprehensive multiphysics solutions, combined with Sherlock's accurate reliability analyses, will provide a complete designer-level toolkit enabling customers to quickly and easily analyze for electronics failure earlier in the design cycle–saving users time and money during the development process.

Companies are under continued pressure to develop groundbreaking products as advances in autonomous driving, electrification and IoT continue to accelerate–increasing design complexity and making it more difficult to guarantee the reliability of electronic components and systems. Sherlock provides customers with a turnkey solution that seamlessly imports from ECAD and leverages embedded part libraries to enable engineers to rapidly build and analyze 3D models of electronic assemblies. Engineers can then subject their products to several environmental stresses, including temperature and power cycling, harmonic vibration, mechanical shock and bending, to help ensure manufacturability and maximize the life of a product.

Headquartered in Beltsville, Md., DfR Solutions has customers across a range of electronic technology markets and industries–including avionics and aerospace, automotive, consumer electronics, industrial, medical, defense and telecommunications–that rely on Sherlock to address their product challenges.

"As electronics proliferates in nearly every industry, electronics reliability becomes a key challenge, requiring companies to perform analysis earlier in the design cycles," said Shane Emswiler, vice president and general manager, ANSYS. "This acquisition will give customers the ability to push electronics reliability analysis earlier in their design cycles–saving significant costs on testing and accelerating product design."

"We're incredibly excited to become part of the ANSYS family," said Craig Hillman, CEO, DfR Solutions. "ANSYS and DfR Solutions share a vision of democratizing the process of electronics design by bringing powerful, analytical tools to every engineer involved in electronic hardware. ANSYS brings industry-leading electronic simulation capabilities while DfR's Sherlock extends the value of simulation by clearly quantifying the real-world cost of design and material selection decisions. This acquisition brings the entire design workflow, from functional block to change management, to the customers of both organizations."