Starting from a few specifications, such as required power or the entry and exit voltages, SmartCtrl – a program developed by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UCM) – is said to provide those designing electronic power converters with a predefined map of solutions.
This, say the developers, accelerates design work as engineers don’t need to resort to complex mathematical calculations. “The designer is provided with automatic code generation, which will give them a solution that is directly embeddable in their system,” said UCM Professor Antonio Lázaro.
According to Power Smart Control – the company set up to market the software – the solutions map helps the user to choose the crossover frequency and phase margin, adding the software presents a stable solutions space for every type of regulator, with inductor current and voltage ripple plotted and the modulating signal output ripple shown.
Predefined topologies in the package include: forward converter; flyback converter; buck converter; boost converter; and buck-boost converter. For each predefined topology or generic converter, users can choose between: voltage mode control; average current mode control; and peak current mode control.
Said to be suitable for use in sectors ranging from aerospace to communications technologies and transportation, the software is based on the design of control systems for power converters. However, the collaborators say the program will be extended to address the control of power inverters and rectifiers, as well as the the digital implementation of controls in SoC platforms.
“Power electronics is going to enable the technological development of other disciplines, such as electric transport, renewable energies, communications and even electromedicine,” Prof Lázaro added.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk