The Power of Integration - Why Analysis Belongs to PCB Designers

The Power of Integration - Why Analysis Belongs to PCB Designers

PCB designers usually rely on simulation tools or prototypes to obtain their network data, but this method may interrupt the design process and waste money. What if designers can analyze their networks in the process of circuit board layout? Read on to learn how designers can improve productivity by accessing analytical data at design time.

As the complexity of our product design increases year by year, our design requirements also increase. Without proper analysis tools, PCB designers can hardly understand the potential defects in their distribution networks. All of us rely heavily on dedicated simulation tools or prototypes to identify problems, but these inefficient methods can run out of budget and prolong the development cycle. What if there is a way to enable PCB board to be analyzed during design to obtain the design insights we need?

Make the problem clear

Post design analysis through prototypes or experts is the principle of design optimization scheme, but when they really need PCB during design, these methods can provide zero visibility for PCB. There are great advantages in replacing dedicated power integrity engineers with PCB for analysis, including:

Immediate feedback of information that allows optimization through "what if" scenarios.

Intuitive results are directly displayed in the design, making the problem (and possible solutions) more intuitive to designers.

Integrated design and analysis capabilities eliminate delays between power integrity engineers.

What you see is what you analyze

Designers can now have more than their network PDN analysis visible at design time ™  Equipped with CST ®， A new extension for Altium Designer ®。 Altium's intuitive and easy-to-use interface provides PCB with complete analysis data within the design scope, enabling engineers to:

You can read parameters and directly select effective networks and components in the design to optimize the board layout.

Improve the accuracy of analysis data by eliminating any manual conversion between CAD and analysis tools.

Use 3D views to easily detect problems, making complex problems easier to understand and intuitively solve.

Altium can also disable analysis until the settings are effective by having unique insights into the design and requirements of analysis tools. This can greatly reduce troubleshooting time for complex designs without having to complete a 10 minute simulation to receive only one implicit error message.

Otherwise, analysis cannot be enabled

With the design and simulation engine, the full control of the interface between integrated solutions like CST ® Analysis can be made, otherwise it may be impossible. Altium creates "virtual components" that allow you to connect power between pads of two different devices (for example, one for power and one for ground). This allows easy and efficient analysis when other methods may be difficult or even impossible to implement. For example, linear regulators usually have no dedicated grounding pin (they are current limiter in essence), so the source of linear regulators must be grounded in order to conduct accurate analysis.

Another example of the unique features of an integrated solution is that power supplies and loads are connected to different networks and powered by switches, fuses, resistors, etc. With a deep understanding of the design, users can be automatically guided to build the correct path from the source to the load, including any passive interconnections. Comparing this with the complexity required for non integrated simulation tools, and using an in design analysis solution seems an obvious choice.

What should the power integrity commissioner do?

Of course, the complexity that the tool can adapt to is limited when non experts can still use it. Occasionally, it is still necessary for power integrity engineers to deal with setting limits and solve many power and signal integrity challenges.

A reasonable analogy is that blood glucose can be measured. Some devices can enable consumers to bring advanced functions into the house and deal with most situations, but this cannot eliminate the need for doctors. Instead, it can liberate doctors greatly while enabling patients to get better care, so that they can quickly and easily monitor their health and take appropriate measures.

The same principle applies to the analysis. By providing PCB designers with analysis tools during design, most problems can be solved without simulation experts.

Access analysis at design time

The coupling analysis function of the design tool allows designers to easily identify and solve problems in the process of circuit board layout. With powerful analysis tools, PCB designers can easily optimize design time. PCB assembly and PCB processing manufacturers explain the power of integration - why the analysis belongs to PCB designers.