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Planar Spiral Inductor Design Process

Decaf

Hello,

i would like to design a planar spiral inductor on a PCB similar to the design on https://coil32.net/online-calculators/pcb-inductor-calculator.html. What is the recommended workflow for designing these inductors? Is there a tool that could help me? So far I have only found the "productivity toolbox" which is looks like requires payment. I've requested to demo it, but I'm looking for other less costly solutions in the meantime. 

I figure I can make the square inductor by carefully setting my grid spacing and drawing it by hand, but I'm not sure how to make a circular one. I'm using these inductors for ~10 MHz LC-coupled power transfer circuits. 

Ideally, I would be able to link this inductor to a schematic part (inductor) so I could take the schematic circuit from simulation to PCB design all in one project library. 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Best,

Mike 

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  • Decaf
    in reply to steve

    Hi Steve,

    I watched a demo of this add-on and it seems excellent. 

    I've been trying to get this app to load with no luck. Do you have any insight as to what I might be doing wrong?

    I've checked my allegro site which is "C:/Cadence/SPB_17.2/share/local/pcb"

    Inside the above directory is a "skill" folder. I have placed the allegro.ilinit file in there with the following contents: 

    printf"Start Loading Skill files:"
    load("./nsWare/nsware.il" "nsware" )
    printf("done Loading Skill files:")

    When I start up PCB editor, I see no print statements and I don't see the nsware menu at the top of the screen.

    Do you know what I might be doing wrong? Could this be an issue with the LITE version of PCB editor? I have read that the LITE version is not equipped with a skill cmd ability, but skill files can be loaded "at start up", whatever that means. I should mention that I'm using 17.2 2016

    Best Regards,

    Mike 

  • steve
    in reply to Decaf

    I think the key as has said is to make sure that the allegro.ilinit file is in your %HOME%\pcbenv folder. Then restart Allegro. 

  • Decaf
    in reply to steve

    Sorry but I am still having trouble with this. 

    I can see my home directory by typing "set" in the command line, showing the following. 

    Navigating to that directory, I see the following. 

    Inside allegro.ilinit, I have this: 

    printf"Start Loading Skill files:"
    load("./nsWare/nsware.il" "nsware" )
    printf("done Loading Skill files:")

    At startup of "OrCAD PCB designer Lite" i expect to see at least one print statement: "start loading skill files", even if everything about my nsware install is wrong. I don't see this, so I'm thinking that allegro.ilinit is not being called at all. Is there a way to confirm that this is being called? Is my assessment of my home directory location correct using the "set" command? 

    Sorry for the troubles. I really appreciate your guys help. 

  • excellon1
    in reply to Decaf

    When you install allegro/Orcad it is way better to install it for all users of the computer. It looks like you installed it for just you because of the location of the SPB_DATA folder.

    It is some work but I would uninstall what you have, do a re-boot and then re-install. Install all options and also check the box to install for "All Users". I will check the nsware and see if it works.

    If you have any files such as footprints or board files, padstacks etc make a copy of them befoure you uninstall.

  • steve
    in reply to Decaf

    So the skill file are not being found. your allegro.ilinit file is asking to look at ./nsWare/nsware.il and it can; find them. edit the allegro.ilinit file specofy the directory where the nsware.il files is and then try again. 

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