RMIT University Vietnam

School of Science and Technology

Simulation with LTSpice and Multisim

Part 1 - Simulation with LTSpice
Task 1 – Simulating DC Circuits using LTSpice
1. Open LTSpice

The software shows as follows

2. Select File -> New Schematic

3. Get familiar with the toolbar and its various functions. You can check the hotkey for these
from Edit tab.
4. Depending on the components we want to add into the schematic, you can click on the
corresponding symbols and then drop it onto the working space. For example you can add a
resistor like below.

5. We can add the voltage source by pressing F2 or clicking on the Component symbol from
the Toolbar.

Then you can choose voltage source or current source by typing “current” or “voltage” in
the search box.

6. It is critical to have GND for all the schematics. So you need to add one from the Toolbar

7. To connect components together, we use the Wire command in the Toolbar

8. Use the above steps to complete the following schematic

9. Change the values of the components to fit your given schematic. To do so, right click on
the component, a window pops up for you to enter the value.

10. Now your circuit is ready for simulation, we can do this by select Simulate -> Run

a. For any simulation, you need to setup the type of simulation and parameters for
that type. For now, let’s choose a Transient analysis to see the outputs for duration
of 10 seconds then select Ok.
 b. The simulator then will start the simulation process, you will see the waveform
window poping up as below.

For now, you see nothing on waveform viewer since we have not identified what we are observing.
11. Let’s add some measurments into the circuit. Two common are voltage measurment and
current measurment. To measure voltage:
a. On a node, move the mouse over the node to be measured and click. The above
method will measure voltage with respect to ground.

Let move the cursor to the middle node between two resistors and click on that, you will see the
voltage measured displayed on the viewer as below
For the above circuit, applying the voltage divider you will receive the voltage across the R2 is
800
𝑉= 𝑥10 ≈ 5.714 (𝑉)
800+600

The calculated result is identical with what we got from the viewer. Hence the simulation result
matches with the calculation result.
You can display multiple values on a same viewer. To add the votlage from the source, click on the
node connecting to R1.

A new line indicates the voltage of 10V, which is equal to the voltage source value.
Note – you can use the Label Net tool to name the net, so they can be shown more information on
the viewer

b. If you want to measure the voltage across a component, click on the positive node
to be measured, drag the mouse to the negative node and release the mouse. Use
that to measure the voltage across R1
The resullt is read around 4.28V, which is close to the calculation result = 10 – 5.714 = 4.28
12. You can measure the current also by moving the mouse cursor over the component and
click.

Measure the current flowing through the circuit by clicking on the R2

𝑉 10
The current read agrees with the calculation 𝐼 = = = 0.00714 (𝐴) = 7.14 𝑚𝐴
𝑅𝑇 1400

Note - When making any measurements, a single click will add the measurement to the plot,
while a double click will erase all existing measurements and plot the selected measurement by
itself.
13. Click File -> Save As to name the schematic as R_R_DC.asw.

Task 2 – Simulating AC Circuits using LTSpice

In this task you will modify the above circuit to an AC network and will get started with how to
simulate AC networks in LTSpice.
1. Save the schematic as new name R_R_AC.asc
2. We will apply an AC source to the network. In LTSpice, the same symbol is used for both AC
and DC sources so we just need to configure the source to have it work as AC source. Right
click on the voltage source and then click Advanced

3. Select the SINE wave and then put down the parameters for the source

𝑣1 (𝑡) = 14.1 𝑠𝑖𝑛(2𝜋. 60 + 00 )(𝑉)

 4. After hitting Ok, you will see a label SINE(0 14.1 60 0 0 0) on the schematic, you can move it
to where easier to read the schematic. Press “F7” or click the move button and left click on
the label, then move it to the new location and then click one more time. Once you done,
press Esc. The complete schematic is like as below:

5. Edit the type of simulation. selecting Edit Simulation Cmd, and modify the Stop time

This time, we select the run time of 90ms. This will help to show around 5 cycles of the sine wave so
that we can observe the signals of interest.
6. Run the simulation, and probe the voltage across the R2 and the R1 on the same viewer.

With a quick observation, you can see the voltages are in phase.
 7. Let’s measure the RMS of the both signals by holding the Ctrl button and click on the name
of the signal on the viewer, another window will pop up to show the RMS value of signal.

The voltage across R2 can be calculated by:

10∠00
𝑉𝑅2 = 𝑥 800 ≈ 5.7∠00 (𝑉)
600 + 800
The above reading is 5.736 V is close to what is calculated so we can conclude the circuit behaves as
expected.
8. Next we can explore an RC network. Save the schematic as R_C_AC.asc
9. Replace R1 by a capacitor and give it a capacitance of 4.42uF:
a. Remove the R1 - press the “delete” button and click the scissors on the R to delete.
Press “esc” once you have done.
b. Add a new capacitor from the Toolbar.
c. Connect with the V1 and R2.
d. Change the value to 4.42uF.

10. Run the simulation and observe the voltages across the R2
A quick observation we can see the phase difference between the two signals.
11. Measure the RMS value of the voltage across R2 to have:

The calculation for this voltage:

10∠00
𝑉𝑅2 = 𝑥 800 ≈ 8∠36.80 (𝑉)
600∠ − 900 + 800
So the RMS value agrees with the calculation result.
12. Next, we need to measure the phase shift between the two signals by turning on the
cursors:
a. Left-click on the first signal – voltage source value, you will see the first cursor on
with a small window to show the values for both X (time) and Y (volt).

b. Left click on the second signal – the voltage across the R2, you will enable the
cursor 2. Make sure that two cursors probing two different signals.
 c. Move the cursors to probe the points where two signals have the same status so
that we can get the time difference. Knowing the peak values of both earlier, you
can move them to these points. An example can be seen below:

Apply the formula to find the phase difference from the Lecture 2
∆𝑡 2.10−3
𝜃 = 𝑥360 = 𝑥360 ≈ 43.20
𝑇 1/60

Calculated Measured

8∠36.80 (𝑉) 7.8∠43.20 (𝑉)

The result is acceptable due to the errors in the way we set the values for sources and measurement
by cursors. Hence, we can conclude that the circuit behaves as expected.
13. Next we can try to find the active power of the component
a. First we can plot the instant power curve of a component on the waveform viewer
by holding “alt” and then click on the component.

b. We can see the average value of the instant power – or Average power – by holding
“ctrl” and then click on the signal name.

The number average power is read around 77mW

It is noted that there are some initial stage for any signals even power, so if you want to have a bit
more accurate measurement you can start to measure in the interval when the signal starts to be
periodic

c. Hold the “ctrl” and then move the mouse cursor so that the start interval at around
8ms

Then measure again the average, you see the number is now read at 81mW
2
𝑉𝑅2 82
Either the numbers are close to the calculation at : 𝑃𝑅2 = = ≈ 80 𝑚𝑊. So the power
𝑅2 800
measured agrees with the calculation result.

Task 3 – AC Analysis for AC networks in LTSpice

In the above task, we use cursors to measure the phase shift between two signals. In this section,
we will borrow an AC analysis to measure it quicker. Note that AC Analysis can be used for other
purposes as well.

1. Save as R_C_AC_Analysis.asc
2. For this type of analysis, you need to setup differently. We don’t set the particular
frequency for the signal but only the magnitude and phase. Modify the voltage source from
the previous task to have the following parameters:
3. Modify the simulation setting, this time we will run only the AC analysis. To check the
parameters in this analysis, we only look at one frequency of interest.
 4. Run the simulation you can see the following result

As seen the result is measured much more close to the calculated one

Calculated Measured

8∠36.80 (𝑉) 11.2791

∠36.87590 (𝑉) ≈ 8∠36.87590 (𝑉)
√2

You can use either methods in the Task 2 and Task 3 to confirm the result from the measurement
the phase and RMS of the voltage signals.

Exercise
Use the steps from the previous tasks to analyse the following circuit

a. Measure the current flowing through the network. Compare the value with the calculation.
b. Measure the total active power, reactive power and apparent power. Compare the value
with the calculation.

Task 4 – Simulating Op-amp amplfiiers

For this part you are asked to simulate an inverting op-amp amplifier

1. Check the note and follow the steps given

http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/education/docs/tutorials/Simulating%20an%20op%20amp.pdf

2. Alternatively, you can follow this video for the process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJp13ppfjWQ
Part 2 - Simulation with NI Multisim
Task 1 – Getting started with DC analysis
Follow steps in the following link to run simulation for DC circuits

http://www.ece.mtu.edu/labs/EElabs/EE3010/revisions/Summer2009/Multisim%20Tutorial/MULTI
SIM%20Tutorial.pdf

Task 2 – AC analysis
In this part, we will use different tool for simulating circuits named NI Multisim

1. Open NI Multisim 14.0

Then launch the tool

 2. Build the following schematic

3. Run a simulation in NI Multisim by selecting Simulation - Run Simulation

4. Double-click on the XSC1 oscilloscope instrument in the circuit. Discuss the relationship
between the voltage and the current flowing through a resistor as seen in the oscilloscope
5. Build another circuit with RC only this time

6. Run the simulation and open the oscilloscope instrument. Discuss the relationship
betweenthe voltage and the current flowing through a capacitor as seen in the oscilloscope

7. This time build a RLC circuit and perform the similar steps as above. Perform appropriate
measurements to:
(a) Determine VR, VL and VC
(b) Determine I
 (c) Write equations of I, VR, VL and VC\

8. Compare the measured results with ones from calculation

Task 3 – Op amp simulation

Follow the link to simulate op-amp circuits

http://www.ni.com/tutorial/10710/en/