Method of optimizing the design of an electronic device with respect to electromagnetic emissions based on frequency spreading introduced by software, computer program product for carrying out the method and associated article of manufacture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9400861-B2
Application number	US-201414324392-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2014
Priority date	Feb 7, 2014
Publication date	Jul 26, 2016
Grant date	Jul 26, 2016

Abstract

There is described a method of optimizing the design of an electronic device with respect to electromagnetic emissions based on frequency spreading. With the method, a designer can, for example, perform a transient simulation on the device only once, and then add frequency spreading with specific parameters by simulation. The resulting frequency spread signal can be observed. The designer can thus evaluate the reduction in electromagnetic emission level, and repeat this process by iteratively applying frequency spreading each time with specific parameters but without having to modify the schematic of the device and to perform another simulation of the device. The method according to this innovation is extremely rapid as the simulation of the design does not need to be repeated at each run of the frequency spreading simulation.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of optimizing the design of an electronic device with respect to electromagnetic emissions based on frequency spreading, the method comprising:
defining an initial design of the device;
obtaining at least one electrical signal at a given test point of the device;
applying frequency spreading to the electrical signal according to an initial set of frequency spreading parameters, suitable to reduce electromagnetic emissions of the device, by mixing said electrical signal with a frequency spread signal at simulation level;
checking whether the frequency spread electrical signal passes a given electromagnetic compatibility, EMC, test;
if the EMC test is passed, then modifying the design to introduce a frequency spreading feature with respect to the set of frequency spreading parameters;
else, repeating applying frequency spreading to the electrical signal and checking whether the frequency spread signal passes the EMC test with respect to another set of frequency spreading parameters, different from the initial set of frequency spreading parameters, and modifying the design to introduce a frequency spreading feature with respect to said other set of frequency spreading parameters if the EMC test is passed, wherein the optimizing the design of the electronic device is used to manufacture the electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein repeating applying frequency spreading to the electrical signal and checking whether the frequency spread signal passes the EMC test is performed iteratively with respect to other, respective sets of frequency spreading parameters until the EMC test is passed or until an end condition of iterations is met.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the design of the device is defined at circuit level and/or at behavioral block level, and the electrical signal is obtained at the test point by electrical simulation of the device using a conventional circuit simulator, a block oriented simulator, or a mixed-level behavioral and circuit simulation tool.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrical signal is captured at the test point by measurement performed on the device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein checking whether the frequency spread electrical signal passes the EMC test comprises frequency filtering the frequency spread electrical signal and observing the resulting spectrum of the signal.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein mixing the electrical signal with the frequency spread signal at simulation level comprises simulating the mixing of said electrical signal with said frequency spread signal in a mixer.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein mixing the electrical signal with a frequency spread signal at simulation level comprises simulating the mixing of said electrical signal with said frequency spread signal in a quadrature mixer.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein a peak deviation of the frequency spreading is proportional to a frequency of the electrical signal being considered with respect to the EMC test.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein mixing the electrical signal with the frequency spread signal at simulation level comprises simulating the mixing of said electrical signal with said frequency spread signal at zero frequency in a quadrature mixer.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the frequency spreading parameters comprise at least one of the form of the frequency spread signal, the frequency of the frequency spread signal and the peak frequency deviation.

11. A computer program product comprising one or more stored sequences of instructions that are accessible to a processor and which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out the steps of claim 1 .

12. An article of manufacture, comprising a machine-readable medium having machine-readable instructions stored thereon that are executable by a processor to carry out the steps of claim 1 .

Assignees

• Shepherd John Avis
• Abouda Kamel
• Vrignon Bertrand
• Freescale Semiconductor Inc

Inventors

• Shepherd John Avis
• Abouda Kamel
• Vrignon Bertrand

Classifications

• G06F30/3323 Primary

  using formal methods, e.g. equivalence checking or property checking · CPC title

• G06F30/327

  Logic synthesis; Behaviour synthesis, e.g. mapping logic, HDL to netlist, high-level language to RTL or netlist · CPC title

• Y02T10/82

  Elements for improving aerodynamics · CPC title

• G06F30/367

  Design verification, e.g. using simulation, simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis [SPICE], direct methods or relaxation methods · CPC title

• H04B15/04

  the interference being caused by substantially sinusoidal oscillations, e.g. in a receiver or in a tape-recorder · CPC title