Simulation tools

In the last two decades, simulation tools made a significant contribution to the great progress in development of power electronics. Time to market was shortened and development costs were reduced drastically. Falling costs, as well as improved speed and precision, opened new fields of application. Today, continuous and switched circuits can be mixed. A comfortable number of powerful simulation tools is available. The users have to choose the best suitable for their application. Here a simple rule applies: The best available simulation tool is the tool the user is already used to (provided, it can solve the task). Abilities, speed, user friendliness and other features are continuously being improved—even though they are already powerful and comfortable. This paper aims at giving the reader an insight into the simulation of power electronics. Starting with a short description of the fundamentals of a simulation tool as well as properties of tools, several tools are presented. Starting with simplified models of power semiconductors, a time-continuous Matlab/ Simulink model for an H-bridge is introduced. The second part starts with the hardware model of a buck converter and the design and simulation of an appropriate linear controller. A possible structure of a controller with limiters and additional voltage feedforward is shown. The text closes with a summary of present challenges in simulation.