Webinar: Fast and automated - quantitative VRM stability on your oscilloscope

Power distribution network (PDN) and power supply testing are becoming increasingly complex as modern voltage regulator modules (VRMs) and voltage regulators employ non-linear control loops. Traditional frequency-domain analysis methods, such as Bode plots, are based on linear time-invariant (LTI) systems. When applied to non-LTI regulators, they may therefore produce misleading results when assessing stability.

In this webinar, Benjamin Dannen, CEO of Signal Edge Solutions, will demonstrate Picotest’s Scope Embedded Power Integrity Analysis (SEPIA), a software solution that runs directly on an oscilloscope. Using data from a time-domain step-load measurement, SEPIA analyzes the power supply’s response and generates a high-fidelity RLC equivalent SPICE model of its output impedance.

Participants will learn how SEPIA can be used to:

• Quantitatively assess stability, including phase margin and quality factor (Q), directly from measured time-domain data
• Determine natural and forced resonance frequencies and derive the corresponding frequency-domain output impedance
• Identify key system parameters, including characteristic impedance, total output capacitance and excess inductance
• Export the extracted model to a SPICE simulator for system-level co-simulation
• Optimize output capacitance to meet a defined target impedance or determine the adjustments required to achieve a stable design

By turning step-load response data into actionable design insights, SEPIA extends the oscilloscope from a measurement instrument into an integrated tool for power integrity analysis, optimization and simulation."