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In recent years, product designs have become tighter due to the need to get products to market quickly. In order to shorten the design process, circuits are rarely considered from scratch, and many people choose to design a circuit using a reference design of the main IC or a module product whose peripherals have already been designed. I think it is. On the other hand, although there are often opportunities to understand the characteristics of discrete components surrounding the main IC and select components appropriate for the circuit, it is difficult to take sufficient time and care for them when it comes to circuit design. Isn't that the reality? In fact, we often hear comments such as ``I used the diodes and capacitors in the reference design as they were,'' and ``I made a slight change to the specifications of the reference design, but a problem occurred.''
This time, we are introducing a new technical article project, ``Understand the characteristics of discrete components and improve your circuit design technology!'' ' will start.
Why has Macnica chosen to focus on "discrete components" now? Here, we will introduce the background.
The starting point is "What can we provide to our customers to solve their on-site issues?"
Macnica has been expanding its semiconductor business since its founding in 1972. One in three employees is an engineer, and they support customers' manufacturing through technical support for semiconductors, PoC development for circuit boards, and planning and design in collaboration with partner companies.
The Semiconductor Business website, which publishes a wide range of technical information, is viewed by a large number of people. The most accessed articles are how-to articles such as "What is a sensor?" and "What is an interface?". Although these articles are constantly being expanded, when a meeting was held with members considering the articles, one of the participants raised the question, "What kind of information do customers who are actually manufacturing products need?"
Many of Macnica 's engineers work as FAEs (field application engineers), providing technical support to customers on a daily basis, and are in a position to experience the "challenges that customers face in the field" firsthand. When these engineers thought about what kind of truly useful articles Macnica could provide to customers based on the challenges they are currently facing while supporting customers, they wondered if the articles were good enough. This was the starting point of this project.
Customer's current situation as seen from the technical support site
So how do FAEs who actually support customers on site feel? When we interviewed the FAE that supports our customers, they said, "The main key devices on the the Company, such as the CPUs and FPGAs I know a lot about , but I often receive requests for support about the characteristics and behavior of discrete products."
Also, as a result of the interviews, we learned that there were many inquiries about "a problem occurred when we changed the specifications of the reference design." Among them, there are conspicuous cases where non-optimization of discrete component constants is the cause of failure.
Originally, when changing the specifications of the reference design, it is necessary to adjust the constants such as "Let's set a numerical value with some leeway" by assuming the behavior of the parts when the circuit is actually operated. . However, recently, such "knowledge and empirical knowledge of peripheral parts" has faded, and it is often seen that even if the reference design is changed, the parts are used as they are without optimizing the constants. In the last few years, due to the impact of COVID-19, I felt that it was becoming difficult to pass down technical knowledge based on experience. not.
"Time to Market" has to be prioritized, and chances to know the basics decrease
I think that the background is the market environment where we have no choice but to give priority to "time to market". In a global competitive environment where more and more products compete directly and indirectly, we must get our products to market early and dominate the highly competitive market. I guess that the time available for circuit design is being shortened year by year in order to achieve rapid market introduction.
Of course, semiconductor manufacturers also understand the current state of circuit design and provide a wide variety of reference designs and modules that integrate components. These are pre-optimized for discrete component placement and constants. As a result, designers can significantly reduce the time spent on component considerations, allowing them to focus on core technology development.
On the other hand, it is also true that the use of convenient tools has turned the circuit into a black Box. Opportunities for engineers to know the peripheral information of the core product are decreasing, and at the same time, a situation has arisen where design can be done without knowing this.
Due to this market environment and the corresponding development of tools, engineers no longer have the time to study discrete components in detail or the opportunity to learn circuit design techniques from experienced engineers. Isn't that true?
Difficulties and effects of passing on empirical knowledge and know-how
A further concern in this situation is the impact on quality.
While analog engineers with a wealth of knowledge are aging, the reality is that there are fewer opportunities to pass on technology within the company. As veteran engineers leave the field, the loss of experience and know-how in design is a big blow to manufacturing.
In addition, until now, in manufacturing in Japan, if a defect occurs, the process of investigating the cause and improving it has generally been carried out. If engineers lose experience and know-how in the future, they may not be able to reach the root cause of the problem when a problem occurs, and may end up solving the problem on the surface.
We want to provide information that only Macnica can provide.
Based on this hypothesis, we considered ``What value can only Macnica provide?'' From the perspective of the parts customers are currently looking for, we applied ``the experience and know-how we have acquired in the field'' to our customers' designs. We have come up with this project with the aim of disseminating information that can be specifically useful.
When dealing with discrete components, we would like to provide content that will give you specific know-how on how to do things this way and help you understand the fundamentals of why we design things this way.
For example, the quality of a power supply is greatly influenced by how discrete components are used. By understanding the characteristics of parts and selecting them, you can improve quality in a variety of ways, including ``improving power supply efficiency,'' ``reducing heat generation,'' and ``extending product life.''
In this project, we will publish the technical know-how held by Macnica 's FAE in a format that anyone can read. We believe that it is thanks to the Company customers that we have been able to accumulate this know-how. We create technical articles with the hope that the Company can use the experience and knowledge we have gained to give back to you as much as possible through technical content.
Direction of future article creation
For the time being, I will introduce the know-how for selecting various discrete components, focusing on power supply circuits, using the circuit simulator LTspice(R).
Instead of simply describing the characteristics of the parts, check the waveforms and efficiency values of the simulator by assuming the actual "selection" of the parts. Information that is useful for on-site design, such as "how components behave in a power supply circuit" and "how power supply efficiency changes depending on the selected components," will be explained using actual figures. We plan to cover discrete components such as diodes, capacitors, MOSFETs, and inductors used in power circuits one by one.
After that, we are considering content such as "troubleshooting" that explains the causes and workarounds based on examples of problems that have actually occurred.
In addition, we are considering receiving "real voices" from customers, such as "I felt this way after reading the article" and "I actually want to know more about this theme", and reflect it in the project.
For the future of manufacturing. Thoughts on this project
If you use this project as an opportunity to get into the habit of checking the characteristics of discrete products by yourself using simulations, I think it will be helpful in your daily product design. If you don't contact us, we can't solve the problem! If you can solve the problems you thought you had on your own, you will be able to resolve your doubts faster. In addition, the accumulation of such experience will lead to the improvement of knowledge and skills.
It may be taken for granted that the hardware works reliably. However, just like the phrase ``unsung heroes'', these products are filled with the technology that results from the daily efforts and training of circuit designers. I hope that the hardware design technology cultivated in Japan will continue to be "indispensable." I would like to see Japanese technology attract more attention by helping people design high-value circuits that can be incorporated into essential pieces. Macnica hopes so.
It would be our greatest pleasure if Macnica 's technological know-how could be made available to the public, helping those reading this article to improve their skills and improve the quality of their products.
We hope that as many engineers as possible will make use of this technical information.
Improve your circuit design skills by understanding the characteristics of discrete components!
In recent years, the design period has become tight due to the early introduction of products to the market. Even with proven designs and reference designs, discrete components must be selected for circuit optimization. At that time, this technical article will tell you the selection method that will be your base.