PSPICE Circuit Simulation Overview Part 1 General Intro

PSPICE Circuit Simulation Overview: Part 1 General Intro and Demo of Usage in Power Electronics Dr. Chris Iannello Deputy, Power Technical Fellow NASA Kennedy Space Center 321 -861 -3276 chris. iannello@nasa. gov

Discussion Topics • PSPICE Overview – Part 1: General Intro/Demo of Usage in Power Electronics • • What is SPICE? What is PSPICE? How to get the Demo Version and its limitations Useful links for online video training and examples A great documentation interface What are the piece parts that make up the PSPICE tool workflow? What is it most commonly used for? What kinds of simulations can you run? • Demonstration of usage in Power Electronics

What is SPICE/PSPICE? • SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) – Envisioned to be is a general-purpose, open source analog electronic circuit simulator with IC focus. – SPICE was developed at the Electronics Research Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley in 1970 s – SPICE 1 was first presented at a conference in 1973. [1] SPICE 1 was coded in FORTRAN. The real popularity of SPICE started with SPICE 2[2] in 1975. SPICE 2, also coded in FORTRAN, was a much-improved program with more circuit elements, variable timestep transient analysis. The lasted version is SPICE 3. – One of the early examples of how successful open source software can be.

What is SPICE/PSPICE? • SPICE inspired and served as a basis for many other circuit simulation programs, in academia, in industry, and private sector • First commercial version of SPICE was ISPICE • The most prominent commercial versions of SPICE include HSPICE (originally commercialized by Shawn and Kim Hailey of Meta Software, but now owned by Synopsys) and PSPICE (now owned by Cadence Design Systems). • The integrated circuit industry adopted SPICE quickly. • ADICE at Analog Devices, LTspice at Linear Technology, Mica at Freescale Semiconductor, and TISPICE at Texas Instruments. • (Other companies maintain internal circuit simulators which are not directly based upon SPICE, among them Power. Spice at IBM, Titan at Infineon Technologies, Lynx at Intel Corporation, and Pstar at NXP Semiconductor. ) SPICE was named an IEEE Milestone in 2011. [11]

What is SPICE/PSPICE? • SPICE, as it core, includes these analyses: – AC analysis (linear small-signal frequency domain analysis) – DC analysis (nonlinear quiescent point calculation) – DC transfer curve analysis (a sequence of nonlinear operating points calculated while sweeping an input voltage or current, or a circuit parameter) – Noise analysis (a small signal analysis done using an adjoint matrix technique which sums uncorrelated noise currents at a chosen output point) – Transfer function analysis (a small-signal input/output gain and impedance calculation) – Transient analysis (time-domain large-signal solution of nonlinear differential algebraic equations)

What is it most commonly used for? • The schematic capture front end (Capture) is one of the 3 or 4 most common industry standard in PCB design tools • PSPICE, as the analog/mixed signal circuit simulation package is one of the most common analog or mixed simulator products. • You’ll encounter Capture drafted schematics very often, PSPICE as an additional optional step in the tool flow is less common. • PSPICE users are analog and power supply designers for the most part. • Less common when you consider microcontrollers, PLDs, etc. • DC, Transient (Time domain, large signal, iterative solution) or AC Sweep (frequency domain, small signal analysis-linearized around a DC operating point)

Useful links for addition information • Download Lite versions as well as free part libraries • http: //www. cadence. com/support/Pages/downloads. aspx • Online video training and demo examples • http: //www. cadence. com/support/Pages/downloads. aspx • http: //www. ema-eda. com/products/whatsnew_orcad 16. 5. aspx • http: //www. emaeda. com/resources/multimedia/? campaign. ID=489 • http: //www. emaeda. com/resources/multimedia/Request. Item. aspx? item. ID=125

How to use the help files in the PSPICE tool flow • Integrated help environment for all tools • Single search covers windows help as well as numerous pdfs all installed on your local harddrive during normal install

What are the piece parts that make up the PSPICE tool workflow? • Capture • • • While original SPICE took a text file with a nodal net list as its input, modern simulators use a schematic entry front end to allow graphical description of the circuit. These schematic entry front ends also have the computational horsepower to output files describing the electrical interconnections of the circuit a well as the footprint of the part package so that both circuit simulation or board layout can be done in a subsequent tool in the work flow. Capture is common entry point for most any workflow in the cadence family of tools whether it be simply rendering a schematic, starting a board design, doing a simulation, working VHDL for a PLD. When used with PSPICE for a simulation, the options you pick during new project wizard ensures visible parts in the libraries all have a simulation template (most parts don’t!) Capture passes a series of text files to PSPICE that describe both your circuit as well as the electrical models of the parts within it

What are the piece parts that make up the PSPICE tool workflow?

What are the piece parts that make up the PSPICE tool workflow? • PSPICE • Is automatically called from Capture when the simulation is started. • Modern versions of PSPICE integrate the viewer (formerly Probe) as well as the PSPICE engine and options into a single application • Data is visualized here in a graphical interface that is similar to a very capable digital oscilloscope

What are the piece parts that make up the PSPICE tool workflow?

What kinds of simulations can you run? • From the Capture Simulation Profile Dialog • From the Advanced Analysis Add on

Demonstration of usage in Power Electronics • Typical Mil SPEC DC-DC Converter • Modified to use breakout parts to generalize this commercial design somewhat • Breakout parts also simulate faster as they are somewhat more idea • Design and Analysis examples: • • • Probe nodes Load transient study Input voltage variation Increased esr Lowered inductance

Demonstration of usage in Power Electronics