RF inductors in OrCad

Hi Joerg,

In general I think you're correct, although even with the intricate stuff it's a lot easier just by virtue of having tools like Matlab (or Scilab) around.

With DSP filters taking over most applications these days, wave digital and fancier passive and active filters definitely are something of a dying breed.

It would be smart for a company like TI or one of the other microcontroller vendors to fund, e.g., some university to modernize those wave digital filter tools you're using. I can't imagine it'd take more than one or two students over the span of a year, so they'd be looking at less than the price of one regular engineer.

No, and I've been gone for the past couple of weeks, so I haven't been looking (again).

---Joel

Hi Joerg,

I haven't designed one like that myself (the last one I did used toroids with Kool-Mu material -- traditional with a bit of high-tech thrown in), but I have seen some built that way... the TI switcher "modules" (complete siwtching power supply in a package, some even with, e.g., 7805 compatible pinouts and roughly the size of a 7805+heat sink clipped on) that they acquired from PowerTrends do it that way.

Hello Joel,

I wasn't enthused about those tools. Mathworks changes versions a lot and then things become incompatible. Scilab and Octave are rather incompatible with Matlab.

Sure but I have yet to see a micropower DSP. You can't use them on anything that has to run off a couple of AA cells for weeks. Also, they are above $4, usually.

I suggested it to them more than once. Didn't happen, except that they came out with a new app note where the older tool set has been compiled into a single executable. But it's not interactive at all. Also, you really have to know what you are doing. Mistakes won't cause any error message, they will result in erroneous data.

It would be the perfect win-win situation for TI and a few interns. Even in my days it was sometimes tough to find a good intern job. With good I mean being able to create something that mankind really needs, not just some scientific fluff.

Hello Joel,

Thanks, have to take a closer look at those. I haven't used any switcher modules lately because they couldn't compete in cost versus the usual "roll your own".

The board I used one of those modules on had a $600 FPGA on it, so no one much cared about the price of the regulator. :-)