Using Monte Carlo Analysis for Practical Investigation of Sensitivity of Electronic Converters in Respect to Component Tolerances
Janusz Gajda, Tadeusz Sidor · Electrical and Electronic Engineering · 2012
Sensitiv ity of electronic circuits to co mponent tolerances has been the topic of many papers(5),(6),(9), discussing sensitivity analysis tools, but seldom they give advices how without many preparations perform practical analysis of a circu it which is not provided for mass-production. And this is often the case in the field of measuring transducers, which sometimes are design to be used in one unique application in various fields of research. This paper presents practical emp loyment of the Monte Carlo analysis to compare sensitivity of different structures of electronic converters to component tolerances. The method enables to determine limit ing error of the structures and to point out the structure, which is less sensitive to component tolerances. Although the way the Monte Carlo analysis has been used is far from optimal and requires redundant simulations it can be employed strait away at any stage of the converter designing process without being involved in complicated calculations, or additional programming. It uses ready made, commercially available software built in most of circuit analysis programs. E.g. the working demo version of MICROCAP, which is free for students and university staff, has been used in this case. Although the demo version has limits in its applications, is usually sufficient for most of the cases.