Fairchild Semiconductor & Transim Release WebSIM

Fairchild Semiconductor (South Portland, ME) announced a new online simulation tool called WebSIM that allows design engineers to obtain immediate performance characteristics of Fairchild MOSFET devices, particularly those used in power-supply designs for notebooks, cellular phones and PDAs. Fairchild has partnered with Transim Corp. (Los Altos, CA), the maker of WebSIM, to offer this Internet-based prototyping tool. WebSIM graphs accurate waveforms of input/output characteristics, such as I(ds) versus V(ds), and current and voltage readings of data sheet specifications."Power supply design requires a great deal of component selection and design," said Tom Winters, applications manager at Fairchild's discrete power and signal technologies domain. "Virtual simulation can save engineers time and give insight into how a circuit will perform. In just a few minutes, an engineer can analyze and compare which particular component fits his or her application's circuit design."The first wave of components available on WebSIM includes 50 MOSFETs and three application circuits, including the synchronous buck converter, load-switching and bi-directional load-switching. The second wave will follow with 35 MOSFETs and two new circuits. In all, Fairchild expects to have most of the newly released 200V and below MOSFETs running on WebSIM in the next year.The company plans to continue to serve the needs of customers by providing virtual design workbenches, interactive technical-support tools, enhanced product libraries, and research centers. It is hoped that this focus will facilitate the rapid design and delivery of new products to the supply chain while removing cost.