Automated steady-state analysis of switching power converters using a general-purpose simulation tool

The paper describes methods for automated steady-state analysis of switching power converter systems using a general-purpose simulator such as PSpice. The convergence to steady-state is accelerated using quasi-Newton iteration in a steady-state solver implemented in Mathematica. The solver updates initial conditions in the circuit netlist description and launches the simulator to obtain the system response over a switching period. The main advantage of this approach is that steady-state converter characteristics can be obtained efficiently for any converter configuration and any model complexity supported by the general-purpose simulator. Several application examples using PSpice and PETS simulation tools are included.