Not everyone is an expert power supply designer, but those who are not may need to create a power supply design for your product in spite of the fact that you are not a power supply guru.
Well, I really like it when a supplier creates another great tool for designers to get their product to market quicker so they can get on to the next project. TI has just announced that you can not only create a power supply design but also the layout with the important addition of being able to customize and download PCB layout to CAD development platforms from Cadence, Mentor Graphics and more.
You can’t autoplace or autoroute a Power Supply design. PC board requirements for a Power Supply design require some real in-depth knowledge and experience in layout just as all Analog designs and layouts do.
Currents on the PC board determine copper track width and length. There must be noise mitigation and that means minimizing ground loops, using extra care in handling feedback traces, and keeping switch node tracks the right size and length.
Thermal performance must be considered as well. Sufficient copper area is needed for proper heat sinking and thermal vias may be required as well.
So good power PC board layout requires a special expertise and source files are needed for inclusion in end product designs. That’s where WEBENCH® PCB Export comes into play.
WEBENCH® PCB Export, is a new feature in TI’s online WEBENCH Power Designer tool that engineers can use to quickly create a power supply printed circuit board (PCB) layout and export it to industry-leading computer-aided design (CAD) development platforms. For more information or to start a design, click here.
A significant challenge in power supply design is creation of the PCB layout. Until today, design engineers relied on application notes, manual copying of reference layouts and their own judgment to create board layouts. Unwanted noise and thermal problems can result from improper board layout and it can take multiple design iterations to achieve the best layout. Now, design engineers of industrial, automotive and communications equipment can use WEBENCH Power Designer to create their power supply design and the WEBENCH PCB Export feature to easily download the layout directly to five popular CAD tools.
WEBENCH Power Designer uses powerful design algorithms to quickly create a custom PCB board layout with minimal noise and thermal issues. Footprints for each component of the WEBENCH design are included and the power supply design is created with the push of a button. WEBENCH PCB Export.
Engineers can quickly create, optimize and simulate a complete design online with the powerful calculation algorithms and SPICE simulator provided by WEBENCH Power Designer. With the introduction of WEBENCH PCB Export, engineers can now run electrical and thermal simulations to characterize the design, create a power supply PCB layout, and export it to CAD platforms from Altium, Cadence Design Systems, Inc., CadSoft Computer, Mentor Graphics and RS Components. WEBENCH Power Designer and PCB Export incorporate best layout practices to reduce noise and thermal issues. Watch a video to learn more about how WEBENCH PCB Export works.
Key features and benefits of WEBENCH Power Designer and PCB Export
Easily create a PCB layout for your power supply design using the sound layout principles provided by WEBENCH Power Designer to reduce noise and thermal issues.
Incorporate component footprints into the WEBENCH design automatically.
Export the layout to industry-leading CAD development platforms, such as Altium Designer, Cadence Allegro, CadSoft EAGLE, Mentor Graphics PADS and DesignSpark PCB.
Today’s introduction of WEBENCH PCB Export follows the introduction of WEBENCH Schematic Editor in March, which enabled the engineer to customize power management designs and simulate the circuit created within the WEBENCH environment.
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