Use Worst-Case Analysis Tool To Efficiently Validate Your Designs

Focus:

When it comes to validating electronic circuit designs, bench measurements on prototypes and Monte Carlo analysis will not catch all potential design problems and the potential field failures can prove to be very costly. To truly validate a design, worst-case analysis is required. Design Master software allows engineers to efficiently and thoroughly validate their designs, using an advanced form of worst-case analysis called WCA+. This program provides a fully integrated set of analysis tools, including a worst-case solver, probability estimates for out-of-spec results, sensitivities, and optimum values. This article demonstrates how to use Design Master by going step-by-step through a simple analysis example. The circuit analyzed is a resistive voltage divider used to generate a bias voltage. It is evaluated two ways: first with the resistors specified as fixed component values and tolerances and then with the resistor values assigned formulas that account for the effects of variables such as temperature or aging.

What you’ll learn:

• How to perform worst-case analysis using Design Master software

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Author & Publication:

Ed Walker, Design/Analysis Consultants, Tampa, Fla., How2Power Today, Jul 30 2012

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