Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: Kemet Electronics Corp | Subject: Spice software
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 26 March 2007
Software upgrades capacitor simulation
Spice software allows design engineers to simulate the effects of Kemet capacitors over frequency, temperature and bias.
Kemet Corp has unveiled a major new version of its popular Spice modelling software Kemet's Spice software allows design engineers to simulate the effects of the company's capacitors over frequency, temperature and bias, thus helping them determine the most appropriate capacitor for their application
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 30 Apr 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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The new release - version 3.4.0 - offers several important new features.
Design engineers can now view and compare responses for up to ten different part types at one time.
As Kemet manufactures ceramic, tantalum MnO2, tantalum polymer and aluminium polymer capacitors, the software allows designers to select multiple capacitors from one chip style or combine capacitors from different chip styles or dielectrics.
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They can also select multiple capacitance or ESR values for a quick comparison of the impedance responses for these different devices.
Designers can build a complex filter by selecting multipliers for each part type involved.
For example, If the application requires 10 ceramic chips of 0805 size, plus four ceramic chips of 1210 size, and four tantalum-polymer capacitors, the designer can enter these multipliers for each part type, and the combined impedance of the multiples for each part type is displayed.
The software will calculate the cumulative impedance response for all elements combined in the complex filter.
The mixture of multiple pieces of different part types has cumulative or combined impedance that can be quickly viewed.
This will allow the designer to see peaking impedances at parallel resonant points in the frequency ranges that could be problematic.
Designers can manipulate this combination through temperature range to view how this variable might change the response.
They can also view the ripple current capability of the combined network and manipulate the bias voltage to reflect the application, thus allowing them to see the effect of voltage on the capacitance and ESR for MLCC capacitors and avoiding unpleasant surprises later in the design process.
This is a feature our competitors do not offer.
Users can also view the effects on one device at multiple DC bias conditions or multiple temperatures (up to ten each) and see voltage coefficients for MLCCs.
A direct link to the Kemet Spice software is provided from the company's homepage.
A manual (in Adobe Acrobat format) explaining how to use the design software is also included there.
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