CIRCUIT ANALYSIS IN SOFTWARE

ENVIRONMENT
( LtSPICE)
ENA First Lab
23rd February, 2021

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 LTSPICE
Linear Technology Simulation Program with Integrated
Circuit Emphasis
• A software program that simulates electronic circuits and
outputs the circuits’ basic characteristics such as:
– Voltage
– Current
– Resistance
• Originally developed at EE Berkeley
• 17.0.21.0 / December 15, 2020 is the latest variant.
- Allows DC and time transient analysis of nonlinear circuits
(transistors, diodes, capacitors, etc., also digital circuitry)
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 LTspice XVII
• A freeware circuit simulator (Windows or *nix/Wine)
• Mac users: install http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/
• Netlist syntax is powerful but hard to visualize
• LTspice has schematic capture and is much easier to
use than traditional text-based SPICE. The user can enter
a circuit to be simulated via a graphical user interface
• Has virtual scope, makes Bode plots, performs FFT, etc.
• Worth learning about
– It is fast, expandable, powerful, and free
– Most widely used noncommercial CAD electronics software

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Getting started

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 wire “Component”
ground
(required)

• To add a component, click on the corresponding icon

• Component button contains slew of predefined components:
voltage and current sources; transistors; opamps; gates; user-defined
stuff
• You can Delete (F5 or Ctrl-X) and Move (F7) components, as well
as Drag (F8) them (keep the wires connected) 5
Additional Components

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Additional Components…

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To rotate the component To mirror the component
prior to placing press Ctrl-R prior to placing press Ctrl-E
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Connecting Components…

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Components values

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Components titles…

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Ground

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 Looking at the result
• LTspice has nice tools to look at the waveforms, voltages
or currents, FFT (Fourier Analysis), gain amplitude and
phase (in AC analysis)
• You can open multiple panes, plot signals versus time
or signal versus another signal
• You can zoom in, zoom out, also activate scope-like
cursor(s) for more accurate measurements on waveforms
• By default the mouse cursor transforms into voltage
probe , however, when hovering over a component (or
pressing Alt over wire), it transforms into current probe
• Pressing Alt over an element will report instantaneous
power drawn by the element (thermometer icon) 13
 Various kinds of analysis
• DC Sweep Analysis is used to calculate a circuits' bias
point over a range of values.
• This procedure allows you to simulate a circuit many
times, sweeping the DC values within a predetermined
range.
• Operating point: we can determine node voltages and
currents using this option
• Transient: How waveform (I or V) is changing with
time
• AC Analysis : To determine phase lag, amplitude and
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various phasor analysis
 SPICE analysis
“Draw” your circuit, then specify all of the components,
then select Simulate  Edit Simulation Cmd
Your choices:
• Transient analysis
• AC small signal anlysis
• DC sweep
• Noise analysis
• DC transfer function
• DC operating point (Q-pt)
Highlighted is what you will
be using in this course

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 SPICE directives
• Commands starting with dot (.ac, .end, etc.) are known as
SPICE directives.
• It is also possible to display the dc voltage at one or more nodes
on the schematic. Run the simulation and then right-click any
empty area on the schematic and select View Place .op Data
Label as shown below
• You can right click on .op to switch between different analysis
option

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 Adding SPICE directives
• After setting up the simulation command, you are set to
go. Simply click Run button
• Run command is a SPICE directive itself
• You can add other SPICE commands directly by clicking
on Spice Directive button
• Refer to HELP for details on the syntax

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 Place Diode
Place Inductor
Toolbar Summary
Place Capacitor
Place Resistor
Label Node Place Circuit Element
Place Ground
Draw Wire

Simulate
Move
Zoom In
Drag
Pan
Undo
Zoom Out Find
Auto Scale Redo
Delete Rotate
Copy Mirror
Paste Place Comment
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Place SPICE Directive
First example demonstrates transient analysis

• Next, specify component values for resistors,

DC voltages by right-clicking on the elements
(be careful, sometimes you may click on the
name thinking you are changing the value).

• First, create the circuit (you

may want to use Ctrl-E, Ctrl-R
to mirror and rotate the
symbols for best orientation)

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 Time Transient Analysis
• Choose Simulate  Edit Simulation Cmd
• Indicate Stop Time of 0.1 s
• Click OK and place SPICE
directive somewhere on
your circuit

• Ready to go!

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 AC Analysis
• Choose Simulate  Edit Simulation Cmd
• On AC analysis tab specify
type of sweep (decade),
number of points per decade,
initial and final frequencies
• Click OK, plant SPICE
directive somewhere

• Ready to go!

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 Few gotchas
• “M” and “m” are interpreted the same by SPICE. Thus, a
resistor value of 10M is the same as 10m (ten milliohms)
– Use 10MEG (or 10E6) to specify ten megohms
• Do not enter “1F” or “1f” as the capacitance for a one-
farad capacitor (enter “1”). “F” and “f” designate the
prefix femto (10-15)
• When simulating astable circuits (multivibrator), specify
some small nonzero initial voltage in the positive
feedback to seed the oscillations

Initial conditions SPICE directive

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RC Circuit Transient Analysis

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