Tutorials

Electric Power Steering (EPS) systems provide a challenging control design problem for system integrators. Because the system directly interacts with the driver’s hands, reducing vibration is a must. But controlling the system’s fundamental mechanical resonance requires loop compensation, such as lead, which can make the system sensitive to higher frequency disturbances (1). This can include cogging and torque ripple from the motor, or commutation noise from the drive electronics. For this reason, it is essential to have a tool flow that supports a coordinated design effort across these technologies.

Figure 2. MotorSolve B-field Analysis of the EPS PMSM Motor

A colleague of mine, a thermal design engineer, once made a comment that I’ll never forget. I was simulating a power electronics circuit and I placed a scope probe on a transistor model and plotted the power dissipation. Its value was of course changing over time, as the circuit’s operating state was varied during the simulated test scenario. He exclaimed: “You have a Power Fairy!”

Ever since the CAN specification was released many decades ago, designers have pushed their network configurations beyond the conservative limits of the standard, driven by manufacturablity, customization flexibility and other non-technical reasons. With thorough engineering analysis, including electrical simulation of the physical layer, they were able to design communication systems that meet both demanding performance and economic requirements.

One of our main goals with SystemVision Cloud is to foster a community where users can freely share electronic designs. We believe that free access to tools is central to this goal. For companies and professionals needing additional features, we offer fee-based subscriptions that provide scalability, privacy, security and advanced collaboration capabilities. These subscriptions provide the support necessary for us to continue serving everyone else at no cost.

SystemVision Cloud is an online environment where analog, digital, and mixed-signal designs can be created, simulated, and shared. It is the perfect site to learn, work, and collaborate—all in one place, using the latest cloud-based technology. SystemVision Cloud offers an online engineering community that allows subject-matter experts to work either independently or together. An open framework promotes crowd-sourced model libraries and designs, available to all.

One of the most powerful features of SystemVision is its support for language-based behavioral component modeling. This allows you to describe practically any sort of component behavior you choose using a powerful IEEE standard modeling language - VHDL-AMS.

Modeling Basic Analog Components

In this section, the analog component models which make up the PWM Subsystem of the Motor Driver system will be developed. The concepts presented in the previous section will serve as a strong foundation upon which further VHDL-AMS modeling techniques will be introduced.

Analog modeling techniques will be presented in this section. Digital and mixed-analog/digital modeling techniques will be presented in the following sections.

ON Semiconductor uses SystemVision^® Cloud to offer customers a comprehensive web-based design/simulation environment. By developing VHDL-AMS product models, ON's application engineers provide cloud-based product support, including interactive schematics and application notes, tunable simulations of pre-designed solutions, and free-form application designs.

This handbook presents an overview of the most important DC-DC converter topologies. The main objective is to guide a designer in selecting the topology with its associated semiconductor devices. Be sure to interact with the embedded designs below, and feel free to take them into your own workspace to explore further!

SystemVision Cloud is all about modeling, simulation, and waveforms – lots of waveforms! We make it easy for you to view your waveforms by clicking on the probe icon, on the application toolbar, and dragging probes onto any wire or component.

The SystemVision Cloud application environment opens automatically within your web browser when you go to create a new design or take a closer look at a previously existing one. If you are going to spend more time in-depth designing, modeling, or simulating, it may be helpful to dedicate more of your screen space for this. SystemVision Cloud supports a full-screen mode as shown below

Go Full Screen

To go full screen, just click the window button as shown here.

When using SystemVision Cloud in modeling and design, the results of simulations can be valuable for a variety of reasons. Whether your using SystemVision Cloud's multi-discipline simulation engine to measure voltage or velocity, the output data can be useful and applicable outside of the application environment. Let's take a look at how to download simulation results.

This is the first part of a three-part series on special handling of PWM waveforms. The first two parts deal with the large amount of data involved. The last part deals with precise characterization in the presence of switching cycle “noise.” I am honored to post this article, which was created by one of our talented community members, a modeling and simulation expert and my friend, Norm Elias.

Download Energy Harvesting datasheet