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Closing The Design Loop With Electronics Workbench Multisim and National Instruments Signalexpress

This document discusses how Electronics Workbench Multisim and National Instruments SignalExpress allow design engineers to close the loop between hardware design and validation. It enables engineers to easily import real-world signals into simulations for comparison and to drive simulations with measured data. This helps engineers iterate more efficiently by identifying discrepancies between designs and prototypes.

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Gui Garcia
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44 views

Closing The Design Loop With Electronics Workbench Multisim and National Instruments Signalexpress

This document discusses how Electronics Workbench Multisim and National Instruments SignalExpress allow design engineers to close the loop between hardware design and validation. It enables engineers to easily import real-world signals into simulations for comparison and to drive simulations with measured data. This helps engineers iterate more efficiently by identifying discrepancies between designs and prototypes.

Uploaded by

Gui Garcia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Closing the Design Loop with Electronics Workbench Multisim and

National Instruments SignalExpress

“The crossover point between design and the characterization and validation process of actual
hardware has traditionally been neglected,” said Ian Sutte, vice president of sales and
marketing at Electronics Workbench. “With SignalExpress, design engineers can easily bridge
the design and measurement domains to accelerate product development time by identifying
and addressing discrepancies.”

Design engineers are always looking to improve circuit simulations. With Electronics Workbench Multisim
and National Instruments SignalExpress, they can close the hardware design loop. This combination
provides design engineers with input and feedback never before available, helping them efficiently test and
verify both circuits and simulations.

Historically, hardware design engineers have simulated circuits with models based on component electrical
or physical characteristics. These simulations have been very powerful and helpful in the design and
verification process, but they are not without limitations.

Although design engineers continue to look for ways to reduce time to market for new designs, the
crossover point between hardware design and the characterization and validation process traditionally has
been neglected. By bridging between design and measurement, engineers can iterate more tightly through
the design process by identifying discrepancies and addressing them in their prototypes. To do this, they
need to be able to easily reuse and compare the signal data, simulated or measured, in either domain.

It has been difficult and time-consuming to accurately model real-world signals such as those from sensors
or buses. It would be beneficial to capture these signals and use them to drive simulations. Engineers could
then use simulation waveforms to drive existing interfaces and verify that the design is working according
to specifications. It would also be useful to be able to directly compare simulation waveforms to real-world
waveforms to help tighten simulations and aid in debugging.

Existing Designs

Sensors
SignalExpress /
LabVIEW Multisim Ultiboard
Actuators
Data Acquisition Schematic Capture PCB Layout
Automation Simulation Routing

Buses
Manufacturing Files

Emulator Boards Completed PCB

Printed Circuit Board Design


Electronics Workbench develops electronic design automation tools for all major steps in the circuit design
flow, including schematic capture, simulation, PCB layout, autorouting, and CAM preparation. Design
engineers use simulation programs to test and verify designs. Simulation helps them reduce time to market,
find errors in their designs before they become costly mistakes, evaluate potential problems caused by
variations in real-world component properties, and optimize their designs.

Circuit simulators are powerful tools that use models to represent component behavior. Alone, they cannot
capture or drive real-world signals, so designers need to use data acquisition and control devices and
associated application software to drive signals.

Bridging Design and Test


By combining the schematic capture, simulation, and analysis tools available in Multisim and the data
acquisition and measurement features provided by National Instruments measurement devices and
SignalExpress software, design engineers can easily sample real-world signals and incorporate them into
simulations. These engineers then can drive their simulations with data acquired from sensors, test points,
or even data and address buses.

Design engineers also can import simulation results from Multisim into SignalExpress. They can compare
simulated and real data and drive external circuitry with the simulation results to significantly increase
efficiency in the design verification process.

The screen shot below shows how an engineer can use SignalExpress to compare the start-up, time-domain
response of a notch filter with its simulation results. In this example, the engineer triggers the measurement
with a start trigger and illustrates how the filter settles through this start-up. The engineer acquires the
stimulus signal with a data acquisition board and exports it to Multisim. From Multisim, the exact physical
stimulus signal is used to drive the simulation as well. The two plots on the graph below show the
comparison of the physical output from the filter with the simulated output from Multisim – both from the
same stimulus signal.

Many designs are not first-


generation, but are modifications or
extensions of existing ones. A vast
number include modules from past
designs. Using SignalExpress and
Multisim, design engineers can
accurately represent existing circuitry
in their simulations. This is extremely
useful when they cannot easily model
portions of the designs for simulation.
For circuit prototypes and
microprocessor or microcontroller
emulator board signals, design
engineers can use SignalExpress to
make measurements on the existing
designs and export the data to
Multisim, where they can use it to
enhance and expand simulation
capabilities.

11500 N Mopac Austin, TX 78759-3504 USA


Tel: 1.800.258.7022 Fax: 1.800.683.9300

National Instruments, NI, ni.com and SignalExpress are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or
trade names of their respective companies.

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