The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

ELEC2400 ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS FALL 2024-25

LAB 2 – PSpice Circuit Simulation

1. Objective
To study PSpice simulation of circuits and verify the network theorems.

2. Component and Instrumentation

a. PSpice Schematics Version 9.1 software

3. Background Information
PSpice is a very important and powerful circuit-simulation program used by many electrical
engineers involved in circuit analysis and design. It can simulate electrical circuit behavior and
calculate node voltages, branch currents, power, and other parameters of a circuit. An engineer can
study the behavior of circuits without having to actually build the circuits. The circuit can consist of
resistors, capacitors, inductors, operational amplifiers, diodes, transistors, semiconductor devices,
and other components.

3.1 How to start the PSpice simulator?

By >> PSpice Student >>Schematics, you can directly invoke the schematics window.

3.2 How to draw the schematics?

3.2.1) How to create or edit a schematic for simulation?

Select File >> New, or select File >> Open and select the schematics. Please save your
schematics before you do the simulation by File >> Save shown below.

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3.2.2) How to place the elements in your schematics?
When you draw the schematics, the elements can be found by selecting Draw >> Get
New Part…, and a new window called “Part Browser Advanced” will be invoked. Then
you could type the element names in “Part Name:” and Place them in your schematics
by clicking “Place & Close”.

3.2.3) How to place a source?

Select Draw >> Get New Part. Type VSRC in the Part name field, click Place&Close
and place the voltage source symbol in the Schematics. Click left key of mouse to place,
repeat if necessary. To cancel the symbol, click right key and select End Mode (or press
Esc). The source is now shown in red colour (edit mode). Double click the symbol to define
the source in the Property Editor window After defining the source, close the Property
Editor window. (Note that no unit is needed in the Property Editor window). The similar
procedure is applied to a.c. voltage source, VSIN; current source ISRC; current-controlled
voltage source H; voltage-controlled current source G.

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3.2.4) How to place a resistor, capacitor or inductor?
Select Draw >> Get New Part. Type R in the Part name. After you place the element in
your schematics, you can change the attributes by double clicking the elements. The
resistance value is defined in the Value field in the Property Editor window. For capacitor,
Part name is C and the capacitance is defined in the Value field also. For inductor, Part
name is L and the inductance is defined in the Value field also.

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3.2.5) How to place the ground?
Select Draw >> Get New Part. The Part name is GND_EARTH.

3.2.6) How to rotate the elements?

To rotate a part, select it and choose Edit >> Rotate.

3.2.7) How to make a connection?

Select Draw >> Wire. The cursor is now changed to a pencil. Place it on one end of a
component (on the red square dot), click once, move the cursor to end of another
component, click once. When finish, right click and the cursor will be recovered .

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3.3 How to start the simulations?

3.3.1) How to place the markers?

The marker is used to indicate the points for which you want to see simulation waveforms
displaying in PSpice. Before placing a marker, it is necessary to complete the schematic,
save it. Then select Markers >> Mark Voltage/Level. The resultant voltage waveform will
be automatically shown after running the simulation. Also, you can select Current markers
by selecting Markers >> Mark Current into Pin

3.3.2) How to set the simulation?

To simulate a new design (new schematic), you need to save the schematic first and then
select Analysis >> Setup… to manage the several different types of analyses such as DC
analysis, AC analysis and so on.

3.3.3) How to run the simulation?

Select Analysis >> Simulate. Before you simulate your circuit, please save the
schematics first. For transient voltage or AC voltage plot, you should place Voltage
Level marker in Markers at the node being examined in the circuit diagram.

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3.4 How to check the simulation results?

3.4.1. How to check the DC voltage and DC current?

You can enable Bias-Voltage-Display and enable Bias-current-Display by clicking the
short-cut icon, and the voltage and current are displayed in the circuit.

Bias Bias
voltage current
display display

3.4.2. How to check the signal waveform?

You can examine the result in the invoked window called “OrCAD Pspice A/D Demo”
after you select Analysis >> Simulate.

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4. Experimental Procedures
4.1 Kirchhoff’s Current Law (KCL) and Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law (KVL)
4.1.1. Draw the circuit shown in Figure 1 in Schematics.
4.1.2. Enable the Bias Point Detail analysis in Analysis->Setup, and run the PSpice simulation.
4.1.3. Complete Table 1 according to your simulation and calculated results.

Q1. Complete Table 1 according to your simulation results.

Table 1

PSpice Simulation Results

Voltage Va
Current Ia

Figure 1

4.2 Thevenin`s Theorem

4.2.1. Draw the circuit as shown in Figure 2 in Schematics. Run the simulation and find the
voltage across the 10 .

Q2. What is the simulated Vab? _______________V

4.2.2. Remove the 10  . Run the simulation and find the open circuit voltage VOC at terminals
ab. (Hint: Avoid having simulation error, the 6  resistor should be replaced by a wire.)

Q3. What is the simulated VOC? _______________V

4.2.3. Short the terminals ab with a wire. Run the simulation to find the short-circuit current
ISC at terminal ab.

Q4. What is the simulated ISC? _______________A

4.2.4. Calculate the Thevenin resistance RTH (= VOC / ISC).

Q5. What is the calculated RTH? _______________

4.2.5. Calculate IO and Vab using the circuit shown in Figure 3.

Q6. What is the calculated IO? _______________A

Q7. What is the calculated Vab ? _______________V

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 Figure 2

Figure 3

4.3 Circuit with dependent source

4.3.1. Draw the circuit shown in Figure 4 in Schematics.
(The part name for voltage-controlled voltage source in PSpice is “E”. (set gain to 2).
4.3.3. Enable the Bias Point Detail analysis in Analysis->Setup.
4.3.4. Run the simulation and find the simulated V2.

Q8. What is the simulated V2? _______________V

Figure 4

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4.4 AC Circuit
4.4.1. Draw the circuit shown in Figure 5 in Schematics. V1(t) = 2 sin (2*50k*t) V.
4.4.2. Use VSIN as the voltage source. Set DC (dc value of V1) to 0. Set VAMPL to 2, FREQ
to 50k, VOFF to 0.
4.4.3. Enable the Transient analysis in Analysis->Setup.
4.4.4. In the Transient analysis settings, set the No-PRINT DELAY (start saving data after) to
8000u, FINAL TIME to 8050u and STEP CEILING (step size) to 0.01u.
4.4.5. Run the simulation to find Vo(t)
[Given that Vo(t) = Vm sin (2*50k*t + v )V. v is the phase difference between Vo(t)
and V1(t) . v = (t / T)*360o. Vm is peak value of the signal]

Q9. What is the equation of Vo(t)? ___________________V

4.4.6. Enable the AC Sweep analysis in Analysis->Setup.

4.4.7. Set AC (AC value) to 1.414 (2 / sqrt(2) = 1.414),
4.4.8. In the AC Sweep analysis setting, select DECADE for log scale and set the START
FREQ. (start frequency) to 1k (1 kHz), the END FREQ. (end frequency) to 1meg (1
MHz) and the PTS/DECADE (points per decade) to 100.
4.4.9. Run the simulation. Find the frequency (resonant frequency) when Vo is maximum.
Find the maximum voltage Vo.

Q10. What is the maximum Vo? _______________V

Q11. What is the frequency? _______________ Hz

Figure 5

Q12. Show all the circuits and waveforms to TA.

Demonstration code (TA) : ________________

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