Design Simulation Technologies – The Art of Design & Recent Tools, Transforming the Manufacturing and Operations
In the current highly competitive business environment, product processes are becoming increasingly complex as products become customized. The complexness of these systems leads to a failure for analysis by using mathematical methods or to allow realistic models to become evaluated analytically; as such these models are imperative to be studied with the way of simulation. Design simulation helps manufacturers verify and validate the intended function of an item under development, as well as the manufacturability of the product. Several design simulation approaches have become standard aspects of product development in lots of industries, and they continue to grow in importance as inexpensive, faster computers and affordable, easy-to-use design simulation software allow users to address new technologies and applications.
As opposed to trial-and-error, a good simulation process allows targeted implementation of design choices in a variety of stages of the development cycle. This really is ultimately benefiting the look engineers and also the company by reducing extra expenses and less work when it comes to applying on the real systems.
Our ELE Times correspondent Sheeba Chauhan took this chance to have interaction with Bob Williams, managing director of Pulsonix, and R Vijayalayan, Manager, Automotive Industry Field Application Engineering Team of MathWorks. This conversation turned an extra mile because it covers some very interesting recent launches on the market.
Different ways of design & Simulation tools supporting in high frequency electronic designs
Bob Williams, MD of Pulsonix commented the design system tools manage and support frequencies ranging from low to high frequency. Dedicated toolsets supply the user with specific functionality ranging from technology management towards the actual physical manual routing tools in which the design could be hand-crafted to match track pattern requirements. With tight integration to Spice simulation, users can use the same library and Schematic capture tools to create blocks of circuitry that can be simulated, such as in the case of the Pulsonix tool. This tight integration and employ of the library mean one design tool can be used using the elimination of possible user error and knowledge conversion factors. Other software tools such as signal integrity and power integrity simulation products add layers of sophistication towards the design process. These will be utilised when speed of the design becomes an issue or where impedance of both design and layer structure is paramount.
In further conversation with R Vijayalayan, Manager, Automotive Industry Field Application Engineering Team, MathWorks, he stated that Modern RF systems consist of high-frequency analog electronics (the leading end) and adaptive digital algorithms. One of the primary challenges in RF system design is reducing the overall area, power, and price for RF front ends-generally wireless transmitters and transceivers. Because of this, smart RF system design depends on compensating DSP algorithms, adaptive filtering, and control logic to optimize these performance factors and to calibrate and make amends for RF impairments.
Algorithms for example digital pre-distortion (DPD), automatic gain control (AGC), beamforming, and adaptive filtering are an integral part of today's communications and radar systems. RF system algorithms, such as the ones required by emerging 5G systems, have to be designed together with models of the antenna front end, analog/mixed-signal components, and the communication channel.
Design & simulation tools-Reducing the danger factor of error within the development process
R Vijayalayan responded that organizations are successfully addressing the difficulties of fast-evolving market needs and increasingly complex system design by adopting Model-Based Design in place of traditional waterfall methods. Model-Based Design provides a mathematical and visual method of develop complex systems. The systematic reuse of models is really a rule of Model-Based Design, where models form an electronic thread connecting development, design optimization, code generation, and verification and validation. MathWorks tools use simulation testing and formal methods-based static analysis to complement Model-Based Design with rigor and automation to find errors earlier and achieve high quality.
Talking of same Bob Williams said, there will always be an element of trial and error however the use of electronic simulation means this really is drastically reduced without the need for traditional breadboarding and prototyping which may be costly, time-consuming and error-prone. By using the Schematic tool as the 'master' and utilising exactly the same libraries which will ultimately be utilized for the PCB, there's only ever one management tool and library set which reduces errors and speeds up the look process.
The latest design tools along with the applications
Pulsonix have the EDA CAD tools, functionality is developed to look after the simulation tool advances. Better integration and a higher usability from the EDA tools ensures users are kept in-line with technology advancements. In terms of applications and frequencies, the range is endless. Which range from small RF projects to full high-speed designs, each application has different demands around the tools and simulations required, be it Spice, Signal Integrity or Power Integrity etc.
While Mathworks have different tools to offer- RF PCB Toolbox: RF PCB Toolbox provides functions and apps for designing, analyzing, and visualizing high-speed and RF multi-layer printed circuit boards (PCBs). With RF PCB Toolbox, designers of RF boards, modules, MMICs, and SiPs can predict PCB performance and verify that the manufactured PCB meets specifications. For RF and antenna designers, the toolbox provides parameterized models of distributed filters, couplers, splitters, matching networks, and Gerber file generation. Toolbox support for ODB++ and databases from Cadence Allegro, Mentor Expedition, Altium, and Zuken enables signal integrity engineers to analyze the high-speed portions of the PCB layout.
Signal Integrity Toolbox: Signal Integrity Toolbox provides functions and apps for designing high-speed serial and parallel links. Signal Integrity Toolbox lets the engineers analyze waveforms and eye diagrams and measure channel quality while observing effects for example ISI, jitter, and noise. They can analyze the channel in the frequency domain for insertion loss, return loss, and crosstalk, and verify compliance with industry standards including IEEE 802.3, OIF, PCIe, and DDR.
Satellite Communications Toolbox: Because the number of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites increases for everyone the high-speed mobility market, Satellite Communications Toolbox is made to help equipment makers and operators model, simulate, analyze, and verify satellite communications systems and links.
Along with this, they've Radar Toolbox and DDS Blockset which are designed with present technology to do faster.
The advantages of Design & Simulation tools
Bob Williams responded the benefits are tremendous for engineers, and also the company overall. After design, product prototypes and finally the merchandise themselves, the benefit from an up-front design simulation that has gone most of the method to verifying the look is surmountable. Apart from real-world issues such as EMC/EMI along with other unforeseen circumstances, the tools readily available for simulation and EDA design create an atmosphere where not just 's time saved, however the accuracy of being able to design and verify within a software structure can only be productive.
R Vijayalayan supported his responses with a few practical examples and said that with the requirement for efficiency improvement and meeting shrinking timelines, there's a big requirement for virtualization from the system development and testing using the simulation-based approach. Engineers and scientists are looking for ways to perform multidomain modelling and simulation, since you can reuse models across environments to simulate how all parts from the system work together. Simulink enables you to create your system with multidomain models, simulate before moving to hardware, and deploy without writing code. Simulink has been used by engineers and scientists across the world to derive benefits including:
- Modeling systems across domains using specific tools and prebuilt blocks.
- Developing large-scale models through componentization with reusable system components and libraries.
- Combining models into one system-level simulation even if they weren't built-in Simulink.
- Running massive simulations in parallel in your multicore desktop, computer cluster, or the cloud, without writing lots of code.
- Sharing simulations as standalone executables, web apps, and Functional Mockup Units (FMUs)
Upcoming technology in the design & Simulation
Bob Williams responded that power and thermal integrity tools have probably been probably the most coded in recent years with the need to simulate 'what-if' scenarios where boards have become more miniature in dimensions however the products are power hungry and hence, hot! Spice simulation for everyday electronics is still the mainstream go-to requirement with signal integrity simulation a prerequisite for high-speed designs where impedance control and impedance-defined layers stack-ups are required.
Talking of the identical R Vijayalayan said Electrified vehicle development requires someone to address many challenges in parallel such as Total vehicle efficiency, new engineering capability – power electronics, high-voltage battery, motors, embedded software quality and transition from prototyping work style to production mind-set and procedures. MathWorks helps engineers tackle these challenges through a unified design environment for system engineering, software engineering, and knowledge science.
With the increase in software content in today's vehicles, companies are turning toward virtual vehicles to check their software as soon as possible. Using simulation, they can assemble all of the key software components that has to work together for any specific application and study how well they meet their requirements. Virtual Vehicle also enables engineers to assess functional behaviour and gain insight while reducing time put in the vehicle, especially when the test cases have any hazardous scenarios.
This approach coupled with data analytics enables engineers to make use of the simulation models of vehicles or automotive systems as virtual dynos/vehicles. This can help in performing virtual testing or calibration that leads to savings of time and cost. The need of the hour would be to translate human expertise right into a systematic and repeatable framework for testing and calibration that can produce consistent results and be reusable across multiple programs by enabling the engineers to do most of the tasks at their computer.
Contributing Authors:
Sheeba Chauhan | Sub Editor | ELE Times