FEAT
ATURE POWER ELECTRONICS
DESIGN SUPPORT SOFTWARE: POWER AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
WA
Power Modules presents some innovative thinking Anders Sellin, strategic product manager at Flex
for designing power electronics with software T
several manufacturers have developed o support digital power modules,
design support software for electronics designers. These software suites are
While configuring individual modules is significant amount of functionality. manufacturer’s devices, but share a naturally tailored to a particular
clearly important to getting any system
overview of the whole power systemand running, designers need a complete
how themodules are interacting to understand any issues that need to be addressed. Modern power development software recognises this and provides advanced functionality that will support the process fromprototype to production. Software is generally run on a host PC
the power systemvia a common bus such and communicates bidirectionally with
as PMBus. USB adapters are available for this purpose, enabling rapid and reliable
Most software works on the basis of a connections.
‘proj
oject’, and the first step for designers is to establish the proj
first step in the workflow is to build the systemby selecting each of the devices
‘offline’, and devices are selected froma within it. This work is all completed
manufacturer-supplied library that is
available frommost manufacturers, a Given the vast number of products embedded within the software.
product search function is usually available. This will allow search by part number if this is already known, but other searches such as product type, output voltage/power or feature/function
software will ensure that all of the latest often available. Regularly updating the as well as physical device size are also
The next step is to use the software to devices are available to be selected.
the PMBus addresses and definitions of system– this would include setting up establish the basic parameters of the
all of the voltage rails in the system. Designers will then use the software to
parameters such as the voltage, ramp further configure each rail, defining
depending on the capabilities of the times, fault parameters andmore –
26 MARCH 2019 | ELECTRONICS At themost basic level, voltage rails can
generally available bemonitored, but
Depending on the
software package and frompowermodules. there is farmore data
modules being used, is is possible to monitor parameters such as voltage and current atmultiple points as well as module temperature, duty cycle and operating frequency. These parameters
advanced software will be able to give a can bemonitored continuously and
parameter against time, with selectable graphical representation of each
Figure 3:
Anders Sellin, strategic product manager at Flex Power Modules
PC, using the power design software. The oject as a file on the
individual rail. For more sophisticated module(s) that are powering each
systems that comprise fully featured modules, the final part of the set-up is to configure system-level functionality such as voltage rail sequencing, tracking and phase spreading.
All of the work to this point has been completed offline and no PMBus connection is required, nor is any
this point designe hardware or solde
ring irons. However, at rs generally opt to test
the configuration in hardware. Using the communication bus (usually PMBus), all of the configuration information is sent d stored in onboard ory (NVM).
non-volatilemem to themodules an
HARDWARE EVALUATION AND MONITORING
AT
Modern power design software generally offers far more so functionality than
simply configuring the phistication and
modules and systemparameters. As designers run the systemunder power to check and tweak the operation, most software will allow detailedmonitoring of performance.
Figure 2:
from physical hardware sent to and read back Configurations can be
Figure 1:
Power design software typically supports the design cycle from
prototype to production sampling intervals andmonitoring duration, showing exactly how the system
to detect faults such Many power modu is operating.
les contain circuitry as over-voltage,
over-current, over-temperature and more. Power design software is also able tomonitor these alarms and faults, and using the parametric traces, shows the exact systemcondition immediately preceding the fault condition.
ANALY LYSIS AND EVALUATION AT Until recently, the only significant
functionality not present in power design software was the ability to perform
detailed thermal simulation of the design. Given the performance and power density typically required in today’s power systems, simulation and analysis can ensure that there is sufficient design margin under all operating conditions. Flex Power Modules recently launched V3.0 of its Flex Power Designer software, which contains thermal analysis as
standard. Armed with this new feature, it is possible to fully simulate the thermal performance of designs and to see the effects of altering key parameters such as ambient temperature, PCB copper thickness and forced air cooling.
The simulation tool provides a graphical output showing the dependencies betweenmultiple parameters, such as temperature against output current, input voltage or fan speed. Based on this information, it is possible to confirmthe design, meeting any derating guidelines and complies with safety agency
requirements, thereby reducing the risk of weaknesses in the design.
Flex Power Modules
www.flex.com
e:
https://flex.com/connect / ELECTRONICS
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