Archived Q&A from the December 12, 2012 WEBENCH Office Hours

I would like to get a high efficiency power supply design.  Is there a way to do that in WEBENCH Power Designer?

Sure, Jeff, there is a way to create high efficiency power supply design specific to your inputs. Just go to http://webench.ti.com/ and enter your inputs Vinmin, Vinmax, Vout and Iout.

Click on Start Design for a single output design. You should now see the WEBENCH solutions for your inputs.

Change the optimizer knob setting to 5 and you should see your solutions recalculated with the lowest switching frequency setting possible for each of the IC's. Also, the passive component selection is optimized to lower the parasitics associated with the losses. Based on this logic, the solution list is updated to reflect the most efficient solutions possible.   

Regards,

Amod 

I have a TPS54332 design that I created in WEBENCH Power Designer.  How do I export the schematic to some other design environment such as Altium?

Hi Wanda,

We recently updated WEBENCH to be able to do just that.
While in your design you can click on the export button on the right side of the upper navigation buttons and it will allow you to download the the schematic in Altium's format.

You can also download the schematic in formats for Cadence OrCAD, and DesignsSpark and soon to come DxDesigner and P-CAD.

Hope this helps,
Tommy  

Dear WEBENCH group,

Sometimes after I create a design, I want to change the components like inductors or capacitors.  Can I do that?

Would the efficiency, Bode plot, and simulations reflect the new component?

Thanks,

Hi surinders,

Yes, you can change the components like inductor and capacitor once the design has been created. You can do that by going to the schematic and clicking on the component and editing it following which you can choose the component from the list of available manufacturers. You could also click on BOM and select an alternate component from there to see the available list.

If the available list does not have the component you are looking for, you can create a custom component on the screen where you see the list of available components using the instructions above.

Also, the efficiency, Bode plot and simulations will reflect the updates made to these components. For example, the efficiency will be lower if you select an inductor with higher parasitic resistance. I hope this helps.

Regards,

Amod

Hi,
    Can you please let me know how the temperature input affects power supply designs created by WEBENCH Power Designer?

Thanks,

Gerold

Hi all,

I was looking at a design I created using the LMR10530. In the simulations listed, I did not see an AC simulation. I have had customers asking about this and questioning about stability of the designs. Is there an offline model that can be uploaded or is the AC model in the release process?

Regards,
Akshay 

Hi Akshay,

The AC model for the LMR10530 is in the release process and we hope to have it out soon. If you'd like I can notify you when it becomes available. If there is an urgent request from a customer on a specific design we can work with the Apps engineer for the part to verify stability and/or get some simulations.

Best regards,
Tommy 

Hi Gerold,

The ambient temperature is taken into account when performing the IC junction temperature calculations.

All the losses associated with the IC are taken into account like the quiescent current loss, internal FET switching and conduction losses. When calculating the conduction losses, we also consider the heating effect of the on-resistance of the internal FET's by taking into consideration the temperature coefficient. Ambient temperature is then used to estimate the IC junction temperature using the IC package Junction to Ambient resistance and the associated losses.

As far as component selection, we do monitor the external FET (in case the IC does not have internal FETs) and diode selection based on the ambient temperature and the associated FET losses. The passive component selection like the ones for inductors, capacitors, etc. is not changed based on the ambient temperature input at this point.

Also, if you want a bit more detailed information using thermal simulation, you could use the WEBTHERM feature for devices supporting this feature.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Amod

Thanks. I will keep that in mind.

Regards,
Akshay 

Hi All,

How do I locate a list of models within WEBENCH Power Designer?

Best Regards,

Flora

How/where do you report problems or feedback in WEBENCH® Tools?

Thanks.

We mentioned an interest in Automotive devices within WEBENCH Power Designer and team has indicated availability next year. Would you consider moving the priority to release these sooner?

Hi,

Why do you use 30 degrees C in your calculations? Can I set it to something higher by default?

Thanks,

LaRita

Hi Flora,

Three ways you can access the list of devices with models within WEBENCH® Power Designer:

1. You can access the list of devices via this link directly: http://webench.ti.com/webench5/devices/

2. You can also access this list from http://webench.ti.com/ under WEBENCH® Power Designer Tools > Power Designer Parts Listing.

3. Also, if you are already within WEBENCH Power Designer, you can click 'New' button on the top and click 'Switching Regulators' or 'Linear Regulators' under the Show All section.

Once you're at the display list, you can sort based on available features and topology to narrow your list down or you could just search for a specific part number in the search box at the top left corner.

Best Regards,

Amod

Hi Abhishek,

You can report your problems or feedback within the Power Designer by clicking the 'Assistant' button with a red question mark at the top of the screen and then hitting 'Submit Feedback'.

You can also get support from the TI E2E Community by accessing http://e2e.ti.com/ and posting your questions. WEBENCH® Design Center specific forums can be found at: http://e2e.ti.com/support/development_tools/webench_design_center/default.aspx

Regards,

Amod

Hi Gerold,

Yes. WEBENCH® Power Designer now has Automotive Qualified (-Q1) Switchers to help Automotive customers choose and design with -Q1 parts. The tool also has an easy to use Automotive filter that lets you filter out –Q1 parts and helps you select parts that meet your design needs. You can access this filter once you are in the VIsualizer page by checking the 'Automotive' check box under the Feature Filters tab.

We are working to add more Automotive qualified parts to the tool in the next few months. Please check regularly to see if your favorite TI Automotive part is available in WEBENCH® Power Designer.

Regards,

Amod

Hi LaRita,

30 degrees C was used because the typical ambient temperature is around that much.

You can change the value at the WEBENCH® Power Designer input panel to the value of your choice.

Regards,

Amod

Hello,

How can we create designs with HotSwap devices?

-PJ

Hi,

I was wondering how the BOM cost is calculated.  Are the costs of the components taken from the distributors?  Are they assured to be available?

Thanks,

Jonathan

Hi PJ,

There are 3 ways to do this:

1. From the device product folder, enter design requirements in the WEBENCH panel.
2. Once you’re in the WEBENCH environment, select New design, then the Hot Swap design requirements panel.
3. From Power Architect (FPGA or uP Architect), use the checkbox to specify the input supply to need Hot Swap.
   
   

Hi,

Customers are asking if there is a link to the TI component datasheet from the schematic view?  Is that possible?

Regards,

Kevin

Hi Jonathan,

Our BOM pricing is calculated using an hourly feed from distributors on 1k part pricing for the components. Availability of the parts is not assumed; this information is also gathered from the distributors. You can see the availability of parts in the Select Alternate Component view under the column "Qty Avail".

Best regards,
Tommy 

Hi Kevin,

Links for the TI component datasheet are currently only in the BOM view of WEBENCH and are accessed by clicking on the part number while in this view.
You can also access the passives' datasheets this way, though unlike the IC they are accessible in the schematic view by clicking on them and then clicking on the URL provided in the properties pop-up box.

Hope this helps,
Tommy 

Thanks to everyone who participated in this event!

We are now marking this thread "CLOSED". Please post new questions as a new thread in any of the WEBENCH forums as applicable.

Links to all WEBENCH related forums are at:

http://e2e.ti.com/support/development_tools/webench_design_center/default.aspx

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