Embed/Digital Power Designer 2017 Release Notes

Embed/Digital Power Designer 2017 Release Notes

INTRODUCTION

solidThinking Embed/Digital Power Designer, formerly known as VisSim/Digital Power Designer, provides high-level
blocks for simulation and code generation of power supply and digital power components and controls.
Embed/Digital Power Designer blocks let you develop a working controller that can be directly downloaded to the
MCU for digital power applications.

solidThinking Embed/Digital Power Designer blocks efficiently model analog power supply configurations along with
control loops, to simulate and verify the control loop without the need for hardware. This allows you to develop your
control routines more flexibly, simulate, verify and make any need correction before sending out Gerbers to
manufacture hardware. When your hardware arrives, you can use Embed/Digital Power Designer to compile and
download the diagram to the MCU and test your real hardware.

PLATFORM SUPPORT

Platform
OS Version Architecture
Windows 10/8.1/7 x86_64

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 Embed/Digital Power Designer 2017 Release Notes

The following features and enhancements have been added for solidThinking Embed Digital Power Designer 2017:

GENERAL
 Added frequency analysis as a preliminary Beta version based on the buck converter using VMC at this stage.
 Added to possibility to perform frequency sweeps on any converter configuration, functional block or block
combination for stability analysis.
 The following can now be measured for converter stability analysis:
o Open-loop transfer function
o Gain cross-over frequency (Fgco) and Phase Margin (PM).
o Phase cross-over frequency (Fphco) and Gain Margin (GM).
o Control-to-output transfer function of power converters
o Input-to-output transfer function of power converters
o Converter output impedance
o Frequency response of any block or block combination such as filters and compensators.
o Automatic generation of Bode and Nyquist plots.

CODE GENERATION
 The COMPONENTS section has been renamed to CODEGEN for better clarity of the block functions and to
remove the confusion with components as values.
 Corrected an issue with the rms measurement block.

SIMULATION

 Added error messages and warnings to many blocks for clarity to help determine the cause of errors,
including cross-conduction errors, fixed-point errors, and import file errors.
 Corrected the DC supply and AC supply and some of the power converter models for compatibility with the
new version.
 Upgraded the compensator blocks with improved integrals with limits and correct resetting.
 Improved and optimized the fixed-point overflow detection, including an error message.
 Improved the dialogs of some blocks with nested dialogs to prevent confusion due to large and
over-crowded dialogs.
 Fixed a cross-conduction issue in the thyristor rectifier controller and added a PLL control option to the
controller.
 Adjusted the Rload +Zline block to accept zero-line impedance.
 Included functional schematics internally in many blocks and - in particular - the controllers, in order to
provide more clarity of the block function.
 Included frequency response models (beta) listed in the Examples section of the block set at this stage.

TOOLS

 Added the Coefficient Format Converter block to convert between the format used within the digital power
designer block set (and solidThinking Embed general blocks) to/from the standard-used format from Texas
Instruments for the discrete coefficients.
 Added a Frequency Analyzer block for frequency analysis based on a model approach.

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 Embed/Digital Power Designer 2017 Release Notes

 Added frequency analysis to the analog conversion tools and upgraded them to better describe how they
function internally in the block with functional schematics.
 Upgraded the coefficient converter tools to define the coefficient format used within the block with
functional schematics.
 Corrected an error with coefficient generation in the 3p3z Coefficient Conversion block.
 Added the Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) block to perform automated frequency sweeps for control
loop measurement.

EXAMPLES

 Added a new section (Beta) on Frequency Response Analysis.

 Added several examples performing frequency sweeps using the FRA block.
 Updated all the examples with the newer blocks.
 Added some more examples demonstrating some additional digital power characteristics.
 Added more examples in the tools section on frequency analysis.

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