News

Ridley Engineering Releases Powerful Software for Designing, Simulating, and Analyzing Switching Power Supplies

June 25, 2012 by Jeff Shepard

Ridley Engineering, a power systems design and consulting company, announced its POWER 4-5-6 software, which it says is the only switching power supply design program that provides component design, large-signal simulation, feedback control design, and small signal analysis in one easy-to-use package. It is an Excel-based program with interactive controls, designed for rugged and reliable operation. All of the features listed above are offered using clear schematic presentation of circuits and designs with pop-up menus for easy data entry and analysis. Extensive on-line help is available at the click of a button.


There are three levels of application for this software. These levels are commensurate with experience and stage of your design to help you achieve the greatest value from POWER 4-5-6 without the burden of knowing the equations involved in arriving at the solution. We have defined these levels as follows:

Level 1: Basic Design


At this level, you can simply input the power requirements for your circuit. When you click “OK”, the entire converter, including control loop, is designed for you. The components are chosen for you based on your data, and these are working values which you can put into hardware with confidence.



Level 2: Intermediate Design

Level two designers have design experience and want to input their knowledge as the design progresses. They want to understand and further optimize their design. At this level, you will look carefully at the selected values from POWER 4-5-6, and change some of them to improve the design.





Level 3: Advanced Design

Level three designers not only know how to design an effective power supply – they know how to get maximum performance out of their power system for their very specific applications. They have a library of preferred parts that work well for their applications, and use these to fully optimize the design.

The magnetics design section works similarly in levels. Users can view the transformer or inductor on the main design schematic and:

-- The user can choose from simplified parameters and refer to a magnetics design house for completion;



-- The user can choose their own cores, wire, and other components and give the completed design to a manufacturer for production; or



-- Design the magnetics from the ground up using the user’s own parameters and knowledge.



Regardless of user design experience, POWER 4-5-6 allows them to check and cross-check all parameters and results. The user can stop at any time during the process and view resulting waveforms and control parameters.