Go Green With PSpice

Shifting weather patterns make climate change a major concern. The demand for electronic devices and consumption contributes to increased e-waste, which is now at odds with the threats of environmental change. Trends toward renewable energy sources and transportation electrification are at the forefront of many company strategies.

Learn how electrical designers can use PSpice to help move to a sustainable future instead of contributing to e-waste.


What Issues Are Faced Today?

As electronic devices become increasingly universal, a major issue is the amount of e-waste generated and its impact on climate change. Component material selection, operating temperatures, and product longevity all impact the usable life of electronic devices. But how does the management of junction temperature impact the device's lifetime, contributing directly to climate change and e-waste produced? A lot more than previously recognized.

Issues Due to High Junction Temperature

  • Increased leakage current
  • Faster degradation of Gate oxides – Reduced MTBF
  • Higher conduction loss – a faster movement of Ionic impurities
  • Higher Mechanical stresses
  • Increased MOSFET on-resistance
  • Reduced MOSFET threshold voltage
  • Slower bipolar transistor switching
  • Reduced Beta for a bipolar transistor
  • Chances of current hogging and thermal runaway
  • Increased breakdown voltages- Generally good
  • Reduced Safe Operating Areas (BJTs)

All these issues directly impact the usable life of electronic devices. If not managed correctly, these problems will significantly increase e-waste creation.

PSpice Smoke Analysis analyzes the circuit's operating conditions and manages steady-state operating temperatures. Increasing the device's lifetime while decreasing the rate at which used materials go into e-waste and new materials are mined reduces the amount of e-waste generated worldwide.

Example Smoke Analysis Example

Why PSpice

The pandemic created a surge for electronic devices, driving the increased demand for digital devices and causing electrical engineers to face tighter time-to-market while still delivering best-in-class performance. Pair this with the effects of increased e-waste, and it’s a larger problem than just fulfilling demand.

PSpice Simulations Help Reduce the Device Failure Rate, Enabling You to:

  • Select components with minimal chemical footprint and verify with PSpice for the best results.  

  • Save time, money, and the environment with circuit simulation and verification to burn fewer to almost zero prototypes and reduce overall e-waste.

  • Design reliable products with longer product life to reduce raw material needs.

  • Test for extreme operating conditions from sub-zero temperatures to 50ºC +.

  • Design and Manage Derate Standards to increase device longevity due to running at optimal temperatures. 

  • Increase yield optimization with Monte Carlo and maximize the resources available.

 

PSpice is Uniquely Suited to Help

  • PSpice simulations can be used to design robust energy-efficient power adapters and battery chargers which optimize minimum power usage.
  • PSpice has strong power electronics simulation capabilities making it a good fit for electronics design simulation for electric vehicles (EVs), solar, and wind power equipment.
  • PSpice-MATLAB co-simulations can be used to co-simulate electrical-mechanical systems in EVs and wind turbines.

Features


Great Designs

Great designs go through many iterations to be successful, and creating an environmentally conscious design adds a layer of complexity to the process. Using the right tools provides the required functionality and enables you to minimize the impact of your design’s e-waste.

Consider the Following When Creating a Great Environmentally Conscious Design

Explore ways to improve efficiency by designing and optimizing energy recovery during braking. Use PSpice to optimize switching losses.

Have a detailed reliability analysis by factoring in worst-case temperature variations. Consider PSpice Smoke Analysis to optimize your de-ratings and component ratings.

 Use the OrCAD and PSpice Advance Analysis when you have power density concerns or want to increase them.

Base your designs on next-generation semiconductor devices. PSpice offers a ready-to-use next-gen SiC and GaN-based power modules simulation model.

PSpice Free Trial

Register for the latest version of PSpice free trial.

×

Easy Steps to Register PSpice Free Trial

PSpice Simulation software is integrated within the OrCAD Schematic Capture software. You must register for the OrCAD free trial to access PSpice features.

  1. Start registration with a valid email.
  2. Fill in all the required details and check the Terms and Conditions box. Click the “Sign Up” button.
  3. To complete your request, click on the 'Request Trial' button. You should receive an email from [email protected] with a link to download the free trial to start your evaluation.

Use Case

Be an environmental change leader by creating designs that optimize power, decrease raw material consumption, and reduce overall e-waste. Some designs that can accomplish these goals already include high-efficiency and high-power converters for hybrid electric vehicles, Photovoltaic, and wind power-focused applications. 

Steps to Become an Environmental Change Leader

  • Optimizing the Design Parameter and Reducing Iterations
    • Use PSpice as a powerful, fully integrated design exploration, design, and analysis solution that can help optimize design goals, parameters, and size and reduce prototype iterations.
  • Innovate the Design
    • Use best-in-class design entry OrCAD Capture tool combined with a rich set of ready-to-use models to enable quick design capture, analysis, and what–if analysis for various operating conditions and failure modes.
  • Simulate Various Operating Conditions
    • Optimize your design in the design exploration phase for various operating conditions like temperature, varying load conditions, light intensity, and incidence angle to improve reliability.  
  • Validate Before Prototyping
    • PSpice includes an analysis/validation tool well integrated into the design flow process that can help avoid the expense and delay caused by excessive prototype re-spins and increases the reliability of the design.

Applications

© 2023 Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.