National Semiconductor has add a graphical tool to its Webench online design environment. National’s Webench design environment helps make design easy. It has been expanded to include enhanced optimization tools including bill-of-material components charts, efficiency and footprint graphs and the ability to output a fully formatted report summarizing the design.

National’s Webench design environment enables power supply designers of any level to easily dial-in their size and efficiency requirements. Power supply engineers can view performance and save time with enhanced Webench design tool. Real-time electrical simulations feature enhanced waveform processing that enables designers to see the electrical behaviour of the circuit under dynamic conditions such as load transient, line transient or start up.

Bode plots are also provided to evaluate and optimize loop stability. Thermal simulation enables engineers to track and solve thermal challenges in a design through the use of copper heat sinking, air flow and copper thickness.

National has added optimization graphs and charts to the Webench design environment, which allow designers to view the impact of optimizing the design for efficiency or footprint. The tool graphically shows the efficiency, footprint, component power dissipation and frequency for different design scenarios.

These charts offer views of the electrical properties such as efficiency, output voltage ripple, duty cycle and power dissipation over a range of output currents and input voltages. This feature lets designers quickly view design tradeoffs and select the best design optimized for their needs. The voltage regulators are well-suited for a wide variety of applications including automotive, industrial and communication.

When the design is complete, a report summary is created and a custom prototype power supply kit can be ordered. Visit http://www.national.com/webench/power/training/WBPowerIntro.html for a demonstration.