The present invention relates to layout for an electrical circuit, and more particularly to creation of a PC board layout according to specific design criteria.
Many times when a user requires a circuit, the user frequently knows little more than the requirements that the circuit must satisfy. To obtain the desired circuit, the user may provide a list of the requirements to a business that is knowledgeable about those types of circuits, how to design them, and where to obtain the components to fabricate them. The business may then construct and supply the user with the circuit. The business may have a significant price mark up for these services.
To avoid having to pay the marked up prices, the user may attempt to become educated on circuit design, obtain parts catalogs from circuit component suppliers, and fabricate the circuit. However, the effort and cost required to gain the requisite education and knowledge may not be worthwhile. To reduce the effort required to perform some of these tasks, the user may obtain and install specialized client-side tools, such as the Switchers Made Simple software product available from National Semiconductor Corporation. While such tools may assist in the circuit design and component selection tasks, the user must still go through the manual process of placing orders for the components. Further, given the rapidity with which circuit component manufacturers change their product lines, the component information used by the specialized client-side software will quickly become outdated unless frequently updated. The inconvenience of having to obtain, install, and keep such specialized software updated does not make this the solution ideal.
Even after a working circuit is designed, the circuit components need to be arranged on a PC board (PCB). The placement of components on the PCB may affect the thermal and electrical characteristics of the circuit. Thermal characteristics affect the operating characteristics of the circuit and the thermal behavior of a circuit may be affected by the layout of the components on a board. For example, if components are located close together on a board, they may overheat, and if a component in a circuit becomes too hot its lifespan may become limited. A user might also have to become familiar with the operating characteristics of each component, as well as the interaction between the components. This often is not practicable. PCB design and layout is yet one more inconvenience confronting users designing their own electronic circuits.
The present invention is directed at creating a PC board layout for a circuit based on parameters of the circuit.
According to one aspect of the invention, the components of the circuit are determined. The components may be determined from a simulation of the circuit, including a thermal simulation and an electrical simulation.
According to another aspect of the invention, appropriate landing areas on the PCB are selected to place the components. The landing areas may include an inductor area, an output capacitor area, a diode area, a small signal component area, an IC area, and an input capacitor area.
According to still yet another aspect of the invention, the PCB may be cropped to a size. The size may be determined automatically, or may be manually set by the user. The cropping removes unneeded area from the PCB.
According to another aspect, a network tool allows a user to input their design criteria, select circuit parts based on their design, create an electronic circuit design based around the selected parts, conduct thermal simulations of the design, and order components, a kit, or a completed board for the design.
According to a further aspect of the invention, components and a topology for constructing the circuit are automatically determined. The components determined during this operation have operational values such that, when the components are arranged according to the topology to form the circuit, the circuit satisfies the user-specified functional requirements. One or more web pages that identify the components are then delivered over the network.