PLECS is a unique tool for the fast simulation of electrical circuits within the Simulink^® environment. Although specially designed for power electronics systems it is a versatile program for any combined simulation of electrical circuits and controls.

Whether you are a developer or researcher in industry or academia, PLECS will speed up the design and analysis of your electrical system. Users will also profit from the intuitive user interface and the fast and accurate simulation.

Application Example
To the right you see a PLECS model of a variable frequency drive. The induction machine is fed via a converter system consisting of a diode rectifier and a voltage source inverter. Machine torque and flux are controlled using Direct Torque Control.

Testimonial:

"We have selected PLECS because it is very convenient to use in both development and teaching. We need to keep our students competitive by using standardised tools that are optimised for today's power electronics industry". Dr Mike Barnes, Manchester University

Latest Release: PLECS 2.1

The toolbox PLECS for high-speed simulations of power electronic circuits and electric drives under MATLAB/Simulink is now available in version 2.1. Have a look at the new exciting features offered by the updated software:

* PLECS Scope

With advanced zooming and panning features, the new PLECS scope is a convenient tool for viewing your results. The scope has cursors for reading data values and measuring time differences, and can perform simple analyses such as obtaining the RMS value of a signal. Printing and saving your results is made easy with the customisable export feature.

* Support for rapid simulations

When you run a simulation using Simulink's Rapid Accelerator mode or when you generate an executable using the rapid simulation (RSim) target or the S-Function target of the Real-Time Workshop, PLECS will automatically create the code required to simulate your circuit models.

PLECS 2.02  

* Extended schematic editor - The schematic editor was redesigned for better and faster user interaction while preserving its intuitive look-and-feel. Parameters can now be edited directly in the schematic. Schematics can be exported in various graphic formats.

* Visual editor for thermal data - Thermal parameters such as semiconductor switching losses, conduction losses and equivalent circuits can now be entered and visualized with the built-in Thermal Editor. A new library concept lets the user organize thermal data sheets hierarchically in global and local libraries.

* Impulse response analysis - In addition to the existing steady-state and AC analysis tools PLECS offers an alternative and even faster method to determine the transfer function of a switching power system. The new analysis tool avoids a time-consuming frequency sweep by computing the Laplace transform of the transient impulse response.

For a more complete list of the new features see:
http://www.plexim.com/product/plecs_whatsnew.html.

Added in PLECs 1.5

* Thermal Analysis - The Thermal library enables you to include the thermal design with the electronics design of your power circuit. You can define temperature-dependent conduction and switching loss profiles for individual semiconductors, collect the losses dissipated by semiconductors and resistors, and simulate the thermal behavior using lumped thermal resistances and capacitances.

* PLECS Viewer - The free PLECS Viewer enables licensed PLECS users to share their circuit models with users that do not have a license for PLECS. The PLECS Viewer allows you to simulate - but not modify - a circuit model, provided that it bears a special signature. This signature can be created by any licensed user with the full version of PLECS.

* Enhanced Three-Phase Transformer Library - The extended Three-Phase Transformers library contains models for three-leg and five-leg configurations including core saturation and variable phase shift angles.

* Enhanced Fixed Time-Step Simulation - The simulation parameter "Refine factor" of the Discrete State-Space Method allows you to simulate the discretized circuit model with a smaller time step than the Simulink model.

* New Components: Simple Brushless DC Machine, Zener Diode, 3d Look-Up Table.