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REDUCING SYSTEM-LEVEL DESIGN VERIFICATION EFFORT


Kishore Karnane karnane and Alok Tripathi at Cadence explore how you can reduce your system-level design verification efforts using the latest PSpice and MATLAB integration design platforms


I


challenges to the next level n today’s designworld, a designer cannot just rely upon the simulation and optimisation of individual blocks and hope that these different blockswillwork to design specificationswhen assembled together. Themaj


ncreasing design complexity shorter design cycles, and pressure to reduce costs are taking design simulation . I


, conditions such as brake force ,


distribution, aerodynamics resistance, rolling resistances, the slope of the road, and the vehicle speed andweight. These behaviourswould have already beenmodelled and simulated in the mathematicalworld (MATLAB). Thus co- simulation of these two systems


ajority of systemdesign issues are


detected at the initial prototype stages and found to be at the interconnect level. Awell-integrated powerfulmodelling and simulation environmentwould enable designers to identify and correct these issues at the design stage.


Any conventional electronics or electro- mechanical systemcan bemodelled mathematically or electrically. Let’s take the example of a Hybrid Electrical Vehicle (HEV) systemto understand this better. The design for such a systemrequires modelling and simulation capabilities for various non-electrical syst ems such as engine, transmission, fuel consumption and emission control, braking, and a variety of electrical systems. The electrical systems include inverters, converters, control logic that uses semiconductor devices (such as IGBT and precision electronics components), ADC/DAC, etc. Currently, no single tool offers the ability tomodel and simulate both systems together. Co-simulation between different toolsets tomodel these div erse sets of modules is oneway forw


, rward. In this space,


Matlab enablesmodelling and simulation of automotive and othermechanical and thermalmodulesmathematically, and PSpice offers advanced electronics and power semiconductor devicemodelling and simulation capabilities.


The PSpice 17.2-2016 release enhances the existing PSpice-MATLAB co-


simulation interface to awell-integrated, bidirectional co-simulation flow. This flow enables the use of these two tools together in different configurations. At the initial stages of the HEV design, the engine and othermechanical systems are designed and optimised as standalone blocks inMATLAB, and all electrical systems are designed in PSpice as standalonemodules. A typicalHEV


28 FEBRUAR 201 28 FEBRUARY 2017 | ELEC ELECTRONICS CS


electrical systemconsists of a battery, power converter, inverter, an electricmotor, and a set of sensors, and is designed using a true electrical simulator, such as PSpice. With the built-in device libraries,


significant time saving can be achieved in modelling semiconductor devices, and simulation results aremuch closer to the prototype results. Additionally, it is possible to optimise these electricalmodules for various operatin g and environmenta l conditions tomatch physical systems. This electrical systemand its control logic can be simulated to optimise super capacitor size, DC/DC converter voltage range, PWM control, and the overall control logic.


DESIGN CYCL SUPPOR DESIGN CYCLE SUPPORT RT


Once this design cycle is complete, the traditional design flowis to take these subsystems at the prototype stage and start refining the design to resolve interconnect newsystemdesign flow, it owtake amodel-based


is possible to now issues. Using this


design approach to the next level of virtual prototyping by interconnecting these subsystems thatwere developed by different teams using different tools (MATLAB and PSpice/SPICE), and simulate the full HEV together using PSpice Simulink. The regenerative braking systemis a


critical block of the HEV system. To recover maximumenergy


bidirectional DC/ DC converters ov


gy, one needs to simulate over awide


range of voltage variations. Let’s look at the regenerative brakingmodule closely to see the real advantages of co-simulation. During the regenerative braking phase of functioning and recovering energy, the electrical systemis highly dependent on the vehicle’smechanical and operating


F gure 1 :Figure 1 :i


option enables thet ttransfer of PSpice analysis data into MAT


a button a button


The PSpice Systemshe PSpice Systems op ion enables the ransfer of PSpice analysis data into ATL


eliminates any assumption and provides a true virtual prototype environment. One can just interconnect these twowithout worrying about redeveloping thesemodel s using SPICE, resulting in considerable savings inmodelling time and in the analysis of the systemas awhole.


TLAB with the click o with the click off


Since co-simulation consumes respective models as-iswithout any translation, an additional advantage is that the designs get reused and simulations are donewith updatedmodelswithout additional effort. The PSpice Systems option also enables the transfer of PSpice analysis data into MATLAB to generate customised plots in MATLAB and to perf ormcomple x


calculationswith simulation data in PSpice environment usingMATLAB functions. This solution provides three key benefits: 1. Utilise all post-processMATLAB


analysis andmeasurement functions in a single, integrated systemdesign and debug environment


2. Simulate the algorithmic and circuit/ electrical-level blocks together reusing test benches, signal sources, and commonmeasure ment s


ge


3. Performfunctional verification of full system. Using the newflowimproves productivity and the quality of simulations. Time tomarket gets reduced


Consider any complex system, such as a wave energy system, grid-tie inverters (GTIs)withwind turbines, solar energy systems, or IoT-based systems - a designermustmodel severalmodules in an integrated environment for each of them. The approach described here applies to all these and similar application s. This newPSpice systemoption enables modelling and simulation of amulti-domain systeminto one integrated enviro


ra Cadence


www.cadence.com T: 01344 360333


www.cadence.com ronment.


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