Date: 30/11/2011

New module in CADSTAR PCB design software to ensure proper power distribution

Zuken has announced a new tool for ensuring correct behavior of power distribution systems embedded within CADSTAR design flow, called Power Integrity Advance.

Power Integrity Advance conducts EMC analysis and AC and DC power integrity analysis to help predict, analyze and control design issues that may cause problems later down the design process.

Jeroen Leinders, CADSTAR distribution manager, says: "With the number of pins on devices increasing to more than 1,000, and differing power supply voltages playing an important role, designers face the constant challenge of handling increased power consumption. It's now more important than ever to be able to accurately analyze the design of power distribution early on to prevent later failures."

Benefits of Power Integrity Advance include:
Ensuring proper behavior of power distribution systems (PDS) through simulations for power integrity (PI), decoupling analysis, DC voltage and current levels
Fast full board EMC screening (differential and common mode emissions)
Cost savings achieved, for example, by reducing the number of decoupling capacitors on a design
Determining and assigning correct capacitor values
Indicating the quality of placement location, value and trace/via connection (parasitic inductance)
Display of voltage maps within physical layout to highlight likely hotspots.

Key feature enhancements in CADSTAR 13.0 include: improved letter drill drawing creation; improved DXF import; improved features for high-speed routing; and an IDF interface.
For more information, visit the CADSTAR pages on Zuken's website at www.zuken.com/cadstar.