Flex Power Designer version 3.2 adds numeric conversion calculator

The 3.2 version adds a numeric conversion calculator, enabling designers to work with the various alternative number formats for monitoring data allowed in the SMBus standard.

The software also includes a display address resistor suggestion feature, which calculates suggested values for the resistors SA0/SA1.

It supports test boards for Flex’s BMR480 and BMR490 DC-DC converters and has also added the ability to monitor common parameters for power products from other vendors, increasing design flexibility.

These parameters, at a minimum, will be input voltage, output voltage and temperature.

The 3.2 version incorporates all the features of earlier releases of Flex Power Designer, including the thermal modeling that was added in v3.0.

This enables designers to simulate thermal behaviors without building hardware, for example to calculate hotspot temperature and overall system efficiency.

In Flex Power Designer, operators can define relationships across power rails, including phase spreading, sequencing and fault spreading.

The software enables configuration and simulation of the control loop, along with configuration and monitoring of digital power modules. An SMBus tool and sample code are bundled with Flex Power Designer for SMBus control and production programming.

The simulation features of Flex Power Designer enable power-stage analysis for tuning, as well as to visualize design behavior.

Engineers can investigate how a system matches up to their design requirements by looking at metrics such as transient response, output impedance and power dissipation.

Olle Hellgren, director product management and business development at Flex Power Modules, said: “Flex Power Designer isn’t just about converter configuration – it provides an overview of the entire power system, enabling designers to take full advantage of the latest digital power technology”.