Choosing a simulation tool

Simulation of power electronic systems offers benefits in the design process by allowing various options to be tried out before any hardware is built. It also enables organisations to predict the behaviour of their equipment under unusual operating or failure conditions which may be difficult or dangerous to realise in the real world. However, choosing the right simulation tool for your organisation can be a time consuming and expensive process. This paper shows some of the factors to be considered when choosing a simulation tool and gives a comparison, from the author´s experience, of three popular digital simulation computer packages (Matlab/Simulink, Saber, and Pspice)