Power Supply Design
Altair EmployeePower supplies are the backbone of the electrified world. Converter requirements, advancements in switches, magnetics, topologies, and control techniques require you to have a dynamic, fast, accurate, and purpose-built simulation tool for power electronics. Powersim has been providing simulation tools for power supplies for more than 25 years; so we know what we are doing. Our users tell us that PSIM is fast, accurate, robust, and easy to use; we aren’t sure what else you need from a simulation tool.
The key challenges that today’s power supply designers are facing are easily solved and understood with our design and simulation tools: PSIM & SmartCtrl.
- Evaluate multiple topologies and converter operation characteristics:
- Operating envelope
- Worst-case and Monte Carlo analysis
- Frequency analysis
- Sensitivity and Fault analysis
- Switching speed and its impact on:
- Magnetics and capacitor sizing
- Component stresses and losses
- EMI
- Electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter design and operation
- Control Design & Implementation
- Analog or digital
- Bandwidth
- Implementation and verification of digital control
- Rapid Control Prototyping (RCP)
Converter Design and Analysis
| The requirements driving your next power supply project are very diverse while battling the main considerations of size, cost, weight, and efficiency. Technical specifications are numerous and can include operating range, load range, switching speed, control response, etc. The design constraints must always be balanced against one another. Our design tools will allow you to consider all of these trade-offs as you focus on your final design. The well-regarded speed and robustness of PSIM will ensure that you are never fighting your simulation tools as you rapidly iterate and evaluate.
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Using ideal switches is great for most simulations, but when you need to understand switching and conduction losses or a non-ideal switch transition for a particular device we have the models you will need. Read more about non-ideal switch devices.
The Analysis Tools for Design Verification, including Monte Carlo Analysis, Sensitivity Analysis, and Fault Analysis, can further help you carry out Design Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (DFMEA) of a power converter design.
PSIM is also able to do an AC sweep on almost any topology without resorting to average models, this is a crucial step for the control design.
A full library of elements allows for any type of power converter or control scheme to be simulated, including non-ideal switches & non-linear magnetics.
With simulation scripting, you can automate your simulations as you verify operation across component tolerances, operating limits, and other design parameters.
Learn More:
Video: Resonant LLC Converter Design with the Power Supply Design Suite in PSIM (3:31)
Tutorial: Buck Inner Current Loop Design with SmartCtrl & PSIM – General Method (6:11)
Tutorial: Complete Boost PFC Design and Analysis (38:59)
Webinar: Closed Loop Interleaved Boost PFC Design in z-domain (1:20:36)
Webinar: Resonant LLC design and simulation with PSIM open to close loop (1:30:26)
Electromagnetic Interference – EMI – Analysis and Filter design
| A working power converter is not the end of the design cycle. It must be approved for sale and one of the tests that must be passed is Electromagnetic Interference. We have developed tools to help you to analyze and mitigate your conducted emissions before you even book time in the chamber. A properly conducted EMI simulation requires non-ideal switches, parasitic inductors in the connections, and small coupling capacitors from all the major power nodes back to the ground. PSIM has non-ideal switch models that can provide a SPICE like a switch transition with a gate drive circuit. All of the parasitic inductors and capacitors can cause nightmares for other tools. Take advantage of the robust PSIM engine as it works through the simulation, and provides meaningful results. |  |
Make use of our:
- non-ideal switch models
- easy to use FFT for harmonic content analysis
- the most robust solver on the market
Learn More:
Video: EMI Analysis and Filter Design in PSIM (2:34)
Webinar: Introduction to EMI Analysis and EMI Filter Design (1:20:00)
Tutorial: Introduction to PSIM Level 2 MOSFET & Comparison with SPICE (12:40)
Webinar: Multi-level vs. Level 2 Inverter Comparison (1:15:29)
Control Design & Implementation
 | Closing the loop on a power converter can be a challenging task. Years and years of experience can help when you design controllers, or you can get the right tools for the job. We are here to help. Simulate your power converter with s-domain (analog) controllers or with digital z-domain (discrete) controllers; most importantly you will be able to simulate the difference between the two implementation methods. |
A common mistake done by people closing the loop is to simply translate their working s-domain controller into the z-domain and call it done; a major no-no. PSIM has the unique ability to perform a frequency sweep on almost any power converter. We provide several different frequency sweep algorithms to ensure fast and accurate simulations. Tricky simulations like LLC resonant, peak current mode phase shift full bridges, or a critical conduction mode (CRM) boost PFC are no problem to generate an open-loop transfer function bode plot.
To come up with close loop controllers, you can make use of our SmartCtrl close-loop design tool.
If you are doing your control design in Simulink, we also have a link to Simulink to allow you to have your control in Simulink and the power stage handled by PSIM.
Learn More:
Tutorial: Buck Inner Current Loop Design with SmartCtrl & PSIM – General Method (6:11)
Tutorial: Complete Boost PFC Design and Analysis (38:59)
Webinar: Closed Loop Interleaved Boost PFC Design in z-domain (1:20:36)
Tutorial: Boost Peak Current Mode Control – PCMC Open to Close Loop (23:35)
Tutorial: Co-simulation of Simulink and PSIM with SimCoupler (5:22)
Webinar: Digital Control Design in PSIM (54:40)
Rapid Control Prototyping
 | More and more power supplies are making use of digital control. We have powerful design tools to help you implement and rapidly iterate your design with rapid control prototyping (RCP). A true RCP workflow makes use of embedded code generation that can be tested in simulation with the power stage; our code generation tools allow you to do this. Easily generate code for the TI C2000 family and make use of advanced PWM functionality to implement very complex PWM gating waveforms or something simple; the choice is yours. Our code generation is easy to use and requires minimal c code background.
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If you do not want to make your life simple with generated code, you can insert your handwritten code and verify its operation with a simulated power stage by making use of our runtime compiler.
We have other options for the verification of VHDL and Verilog code for FPGA implementations.
Learn More:
Webinar: Getting Started with Code Gen (1:08:14)
Webinar: PSIM + Typhoon HIL: A Thorough Tutorial of RCP for 3 Phase Inverter Controller Design (1:07:33)