PathWave ADS saves prototyping time and money
Keysight Technologies claims to save designers time and money at the iterative build and test stage of physical prototypes, with its PathWave Advanced Design System (ADS) add-on to its Power Electronics Pro (PEPro) software.
PathWave ADS enables designers to perform pre-compliance testing on virtual prototypes of switched mode power supply (SMPS) designs. This capability saves the time and cost of iterative build and test of physical prototypes, says Keysight.
Demand for SMPS is driven by the need for greater efficiency, increased power density and lower cost. Fast, low-loss switches made from silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) will power future applications due to the high performance and efficiency they enable. There are unwanted side effects, however, from the high current slew rate, such as difficultly meeting the radiated electromagnetic interference (EMI) spec. Pre-compliance analysis of a virtual prototype manages this challenge but until now it required a degree of expertise with a complicated, general-purpose electromagnetic (EM) field solver, Keysight explains.
It has added a radiated EMI capability to its Power Electronics Professional (PEPro) software, available as an add-on to PathWave ADS. The add-on includes automatic set-up, pre-built test benches, frequency-domain far-field analyses that mimic real-world tests, and comparison with government-mandated masks.
High current slew rate in the switched loop is beneficial but requires greater discipline in circuit design and layout. Dr. Rakesh Lal, principal scientist at GaN semiconductor company, Transphorm, said: “The high frequency switching harmonics give unwanted radiation into the VHF frequency band, so we look to Keysight for their experience in modelling these effects. PEPro . . . makes it accessible to power electronics designers to optimise wide bandgap circuits and layouts for highest performance and reliability,” he said.
Being able to simulate interactions between PE, SI, PI and EMI together in a single environment adds tremendous visibility to the design process, explained Steve Sandler, managing director of testing and measurement tools company, Picotest.
Keysight’s power electronics design solutions enable power device production across the entire workflow from simulation, design, and verification to manufacturing, deployment, and optimisation. Keysight offers a complete electromagnetic circuit co-simulation environment with its PathWave ADS.
Keysight Technologies helps enterprises, service providers and governments accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world. Keysight’s products optimise networks and bring electronic products to market faster and at a lower cost with offerings from design simulation, to prototype validation, to manufacturing test, to optimisation in networks and cloud environments. Customers operate in communications ecosystem, aerospace and defence, automotive, energy, semiconductor and general electronics markets.
