Nuvation Power Supply Characterization System Design

Authors: 
Brent Laurence and Chris Walsh
Case revision date: 
2010-01-12
Length: 
4 Pages (Case Study)
Summary: 

Eclipse image stabilizer fitted on the helicopterNuvation Research Corporation (Nuvation) is an Engineering Design Services firm specializing in the design of embedded systems with applications in industries such as telecommunications and consumer electronics. The company headquarters is located in San Jose, California, USA and has a branch design center in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. In May 2009, Nuvation was under contract to design a high speed video multiplexing system capable of compressing up to 24 channels of high definition video input into a single output stream. The design consists of several high performance devices withlow voltage requirements. The system was required to accept a 24V input voltage that would need to be converted to several voltages between 0.8V and 1.2V. 

The engineering design team at Nuvation responsible for this product development effort had tentatively selected the Texas Instruments TPS40055 Wide-Input Synchronous Buck Controller for use in the product’s power supply.  The engineering design team required a power supply characterization system capable of testing the TPS40055 to determine the performance of the device under varying load conditions.

Learning objectives: 

The teaching objective is to facilitate formulation of electronic systems that are controlled via PC and have the ability to carry out voltage measurements that may be relayed to the PC in real time.

Key words: 
Microcontroller; Power supply; Circuit design; Load Simulation; PC Communication Interface; System Integration
CEAB attributes: 
Design; Use of Engineering Tools; Individual and Team Work; Economics and Project Management.
Modules: 
Module 01 - Case Study
Module 02 - System Block Diagram (Restricted to educators only)
Module 03 - Microcontroller Selection (Restricted to educators only)
Module 04 - Load Simulation (Restricted to educators only)
Module 05 - Voltage Monitor (Restricted to educators only)
Module 06 - PC Communication Interface (Restricted to educators only)
Module 07 - System Integration (Restricted to educators only)
Module TN - Teaching Note (Restricted to educators only)

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