Virtual Circuit Evaluation for Component Configuration Decisions
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Solution Overview
Problem
The erosion of analog or mixed-signal design expertise leads to increased design costs, schedule overruns, and impacts end-product quality due to a lack of qualified engineers to select and configure conversion and signal processing devices effectively.
Innovation Solution
A virtual evaluation tool that provides a user interface for selecting and configuring electronic components, generating stimulus signals, and simulating their behavior, allowing users to evaluate components in a 'virtual' environment based on configuration data sets and models.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If analog hardware design expertise is maintained at high levels, then design quality and efficiency improve, but the availability of qualified engineers decreases due to erosion of expertise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual copies of analog hardware components through software models that replicate the electrical behavior and characteristics of physical devices. These virtual models allow engineers to evaluate and design analog circuits without requiring deep hands-on hardware expertise, effectively copying the functionality of expert-level design capabilities into accessible software tools.
Solution Approach 2:
The evaluation tool acts as an intermediary between the engineer and the complex analog hardware design process. It provides automated analysis, simulation, and optimization capabilities that bridge the gap between limited engineer expertise and the complexity of modern analog circuits, enabling non-experts to achieve expert-level design results.
2Measurement precision
If circuit designs become more complex to handle increased sensor precision and variety, then measurement precision improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex circuit design evaluation process into distinct virtual modules that can be independently configured and analyzed. Each sensor type and processing stage can be evaluated separately through virtual models, allowing engineers to manage complexity by breaking down the overall design into manageable segments rather than tackling the entire complex system at once.
Solution Approach 2:
The evaluation tool enables systematic exploration of design parameters through virtual modeling, allowing engineers to adjust and optimize circuit parameters without physically building complex prototypes. This parameter-based approach simplifies the management of design complexity by providing automated analysis of how different parameter combinations affect measurement precision.
3Ease of operation
If more virtual evaluation and simulation capabilities are provided, then ease of operation improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual evaluation tool provides self-service capabilities by automatically performing complex simulations, analysis, and optimization tasks without requiring users to manually configure complex simulation environments. The system self-manages the computational burden of evaluating different component configurations, allowing users to obtain design insights through simple interface interactions rather than complex manual setup.
Data Source
AI summary
Various examples are directed to systems and methods for evaluating electronic components. A server computing device may provide an evaluation user interface to a user application executing at a user computing device. The server computing device may receive an indication of an electronic component for evaluation from the user application and via the user interface and access a configuration data set for the electronic component. The configuration data set may comprise argument data describing a set of arguments for the electronic component; binding data describing a relationship between a first argument of the set of arguments and a first model input parameter; and simulator data describing a model for the electronic component. The server computing device may also evaluate the electronic component based at least in part on the configuration data set.