ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT SIMULATION PACKAGE 1

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UNIT 4

OBJECTIVE

General Objective : To understand the concept of Transient analysis.

Specific Objective : At the end of this unit, you should be able to :-

 Explain Transient Analysis.

 Explain Transient Source.
 Apply and set up the Transient Sources.
 Draw samples of Transient analog circuits.
 Display the waveforms using Probe.
 Analyze small signal and large signal amplifier.
 Analyze the output waveform.
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INPUT

4.0 INTRODUCTION
The Transient Analysis is used to look at waveforms versus time. Waveforms are
displayed as you see them on an oscilloscope screen. The analysis must be set for
time-based calculations, so that we can know how the waveform changes with time.
Transient analysis is used in simulating circuits such as rectifiers, amplifiers,
clippers, etc.

In this unit, you will learn about transient sources, transient analysis and their setup.
To run transient analysis, the circuit to be simulated has to have transient source.

4.1 TRANSIENT SOURCE

The Transient Analysis uses voltage and current sources that are functions of time.
The sources below are meant to be used with the transient analysis:

a) Sinusoidal voltage or current source.

b) Pulse waveform – can be used to create a square wave.

c) Piece-Wise-Linear voltage or current source – can create any arbitrary

waveform that is made of straight lines such as triangular or sawtooth wave.
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4.1.1 Transient source Setup

a) Sinewave Generator

The operational sequence for constructing the sinewave generator is:

\Draw\Get New Part\Browse\source.slb\Vsin\OK.
Another way to construct a generator is by clicking the icon

and browsing through the libraries.

Place the sinewave generator in your desired circuit as shown in Figure 4.1

Sinewave
Generator
Symbol

Fig. 4.1
To set the attributes for the sinewave generator ,double click on the supply
symbol. This will open the VSIN attribute window as shown below:
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PSpice must have values for voff,vampl and freq. Voff is the DC offset voltage
for the AC supply.This value is usually zero . To set the attribute,double click
the Voff line and the cursor will move to the value entry box. Type the
number zero (0) and then Save Attr box.

PSpice refers to AC sinusoidal voltages and currents using peak values.This

value is entered in the same way that the DC offset was entered.Double click
the vampl line and type the desired value in the value box.Click the Save Attr
box and then the Change Display box.This action opens the Change Attribute
window.Clicking the squares next to Value and Name tells PSpice to display
the amplitude value on the schematic.This in not necessary for the analysis of
the circuit but it does make the source values obvious to anyone reading
schematic.

The frequency of the voltage source is set in the same manner as the voltage
amplitude.Three additional optional values , td ,df , and phase are usually set
to zero (0).

b) Pulse Generator

The operational sequence for constructing the pulse generator is:

\Draw\Get New Part\Browse\source.slb\VPulse\OK
Another way to construct a generator is by clicking the icon
and browsing through the libraries.

Place the pulse generator in your desired circuit as shown below:

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To set the attributes for the pulse generator ,double click on the supply
symbol. This will open the VPULSE attribute window as shown below:

The voltage value V1 and V2 are the initial voltage and the pulsed voltage,
respectively. Double click V1 to activate it and put zero(0) in the value
box. Set V2 to the desired value. TD is the delay time before the first
pulse. The value is usually zero (0). The next two parameters are the rise
time(TR) and the fall time(TF). Pspice requires non-zero values for the
rise and fall times. The true values for the rise and the fall time are known
for the wave generator, they can be used by the software to provide more
accurate results. The pulse width (PW) is the time when the voltage
amplitude is ‘high’. The period (PER) is the time of the completed pulse.
The example of one complete pulse is shown in Figure 4.2.

Volts

PW
TD
TR TF

Time (s)
Fig. 4.2
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c) PWL (Piece-Wise- Linear)

The operational sequence for constructing the PWL generator is:

\Draw\Get New Part\Browse\source.slb\VPWL\OK
Another way to construct a generator is by clicking the icon
and browsing through the libraries.
Place the PWL generator in your desired circuit as shown below.

Double click on the graphic of the PWL Generator symbol. You will get a
PWL
Box as shown below:

V1,V2,V3,V4 are the values of the voltages at the time T1,T2,T3,T4 respectively.
Type the values of each parameters and remember to click the Save Attr box after
each time you edited the values.If you fail to do so,the values will not be saved by
PSpice.
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4.2 WHAT IS TRANSIENT ANALYSIS?

Transient analysis is a type of analysis which involves the use of transient source.
Using this analysis, we will be able to know what the circuit does to the input
waveform by looking at the output waveform as a function of time.

Setting up transient analysis

a) \Analysis\Setup opens the analysis setup window. Click the enable box next
to Transient Analysis.
You can also click to get the analysis setup window.

b) Click the Transient box to open the Transient window.This is shown below:

c) The Print Step value indicates the time interval between values that are to be
printed to the output file. Every Print Step seconds, the print part will print
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out the specified values in the output file. However, if its value is too small it
sometimes affects the length of the simulation.
The Final Time is the length of time the analysis will continue.
No-Print Delay is the value of the delay time between the beginning of the
analysis and the start of the traces. Enter zero (0) in the box for No-Print
Delay.
The Step Ceiling allows a ceiling smaller or larger than the print interval to be
put on the internal time step. In determining the data points to be used for
making voltages traces, PSpice chooses as many points as it believes
necessary to make a satisfactory graph. This generally results in rather jagged
traces. The default value of the Step Ceiling is 1/50th of the total time for
simulation. Sometimes this default value still cannot produce a smooth trace.
The problem can be corrected by setting the step ceiling 10 times smaller,
forcing PSpice to calculate more points, and generating a smoother curve.

d) When the setup is completed , click OK in each window and run the PSpice
analysis ( \Analysis\Simulate).
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ACTIVITY 4a

TEST YOUR COMPREHENSION BEFORE PROCEEDING TO THE NEXT

INPUT…!
 CHECK YOUR ANSWERS IN THE FEEDBACK SECTION ON THE
NEXT PAGE.

Do the following exercises.

1. You will now apply what you have learnt from this unit about transient source
and transient analysis setups.

a. Draw the circuit given in Figure 4.2 below.

Figure 4.2
b. Set the input Vin as shown in Figure 4.2.
c. Save the schematic as rect1.sch.
d. Set the transient analysis setup so that the simulation ends after 3 cycles of the
input waveform.
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2. Reinforce your skills by again applying your knowledge to figure 4.3 below.

Vm

15V
2 4 t(ms)
0 1 3
-15V

Figure 4.3

a. Draw the second circuit given in above Figure 4.3.

b. Set the Vm as shown in the above figure.
c. Save the schematic as zener.sch.
d. Set the transient analysis setup for the circuit.
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FEEDBACK 4a

Answer :
1.
b.

c.
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d.

2.
b.
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c.

d.
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INPUT

4.3 DISPLAYING THE RESULTS OF TRANSIENT ANALYSIS USING

PROBE

In this unit, you will use the probe facilities to view the input and output
waveforms of the simulated circuit. From the output waveform you are going
to analyze the output.

Probe is a graphics post-processor that allows the simulation results to be

displayed in graphical form . After the calculations are completed,assuming no
errors are found,PSpice sends the data base it generated (filename.Dat) to
Probe,which displays a graph.

When the analysis is completed, probe will run automatically if the auto-run
option is selected in the Probe Setup menu.Otherwise, Run Probe can be used
to begin the graphical display,from either the Analysis window in
Schematics,or from the File menu in the PSpice window.

4.3.1 How to place probe on the circuit.

You should specify the plot variables to instruct Probe to display a graph at
the voltage terminals that you want.This can be done by two methods:

4.3.1.1 Placing a ‘Bubble’ on the circuit

To get a ‘Bubble’, choose \Draw\Get New Part and type a word
“bubble” in to the Get Part box. This is shown below.
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Place the ‘bubble’ at the circuit terminals where you want to monitor
the waves.Double click the bubble graphic and label the terminal.Refer
to Figure 4.4

Figure 4.4 A circuit with ‘bubble’.

4.3.1.2 Placing Markers on the circuit

The voltage markers are chosen from the Markers pull down menu by
\Markers\Mark Voltage. Place the markers on the desired points of the
circuit. This is shown in the example below (Figure 4.5).

Figure 4.5 A circuit with ‘marker’

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These markers tell Probe that voltage traces for the voltages at these
points should be graphed automatically as soon as the Probe is run.In
order for Probe to acknowledge the markers, a change must be made to
the Probe Setup.The default condition is None in the At Probe Startup
box of the Probe Setup window.Click the circle next to Show All
Markers to activate the automatic graphing. Refer to the figure below:

4.3.2 How to set the probe setup.

Choose Trace on the Probe menu.Within the large box at the top of the
dialog box that appears,you will see the list of default trace variables you can
choose from.
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After specifying the plot variables, type the voltage node in the Trace
Command Box. Figure 4.14. shows the trace command for circuit in Figure
4.11. This instructs Probe to display a graph of the voltage at the input and
output terminals. Click OK, and you will see the plot of the input and output
voltage as shown in Figure 4.6.

Figure . 4.6
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ACTIVITY 4b

 TEST YOUR COMPREHENSION BEFORE PROCEEDING TO THE

NEXT INPUT…!
 CHECK YOUR ANSWERS IN THE FEEDBACK SECTION ON THE
NEXT PAGE.

Do the following exercises.

1. Refer to the circuit you have drawn in Figure 4.2.You have already
done the
source setup and analysis setup for the circuit.

a) Label the voltage input and output across RL using bubble.

b) Click the pull down menu:
\Analysis\Probe Setup\Automatically Run Probe after Simulation\OK
c) Run simulation
d) Trace the Vin and Vout across RL

2. Refer to the circuit you have drawn in Figure 4.3.You have already
done the
source setup and analysis setup for the circuit.

a) Mark the voltage across Vm and Vout across diode D1.

b) Click the pull down menu:
\Analysis\Probe Setup\Automatically Run Probe after Simulation\OK
c) Run simulation
d) Trace the Vm and Vout across Diode D1
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FEEDBACK 4b

Answers :

1. a.

d.
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2. a.

d.

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INPUT

4.4 SMALL SIGNAL AMPLIFIER

A small signal amplifier can be thought of as an amplifier that uses a small enough
portion of transconductance curve that harmonic distortions are negligible. We can
define a small signal amplifier as an amplifier whose output peak-to-peak amplitude is
less than 10% of the supply voltage.

4.4.1 Small signal amplifier simulation

Figure 4.7 shows a schematic for a small signal amplifier using a voltage divider
biasing .

Figure 4.7
 Draw the above circuit. Set the input signal as 10kHz sine wave with a peak
amplitude of 1mV. Label the input and output node and place a marker on
the output node. This will tell Pspice to plot the output waveform
automatically after simulation. Save the schematic under the name
ampli1.sch.
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i. Now, we are going to set the transient analysis. The step is the same as what
we have discussed in the previous Input. Since the signal frequency is 10kHz,
so the period of the signal is 1/f which give us 1/10kHz = 100us. We will tell
Pspice to do the analysis until 3 periods, so we will choose 300us as the value
for the Final Step. Choose 10us for Print Step, 0 for No-Print Delay and
600ns for the Step Ceiling. This is shown in the figure below:

ii. When the setup is completed,click OK and simulate circuit. You will get the
plot for the input and output waveforms as shown in Figure 4.8 below.
To get the separate traces for V(IN) and V(OUT), choose pull down menu
\Plot\Add Plot\Trace\V( node ) from the Probe window.
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Figure 4.8

From the output trace, we can see that the amplitude of V(OUT) is 82.27mV
and this will give us the voltage gain Av = 82.27. The traces also indicate
that a phase inversion has taken place between the input and the output
signal.
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ACTIVITY 4c

 TEST YOUR COMPREHENSION BEFORE PROCEEDING TO THE

NEXT INPUT…!
 CHECK YOUR ANSWERS IN THE FEEDBACK SECTION ON THE
NEXT PAGE.

Do the following exercises.

Look at the below schematic circuit. The circuit is the same as the small signal
amplifier circuit that we have discussed before. But this time, we increase the input
signal to 75mV. Load resistance (R6) is reduced to 2k to make the AC effects
greater. We can call this circuit as a large signal amplifier or power amplifier
because of the signal that is going to be amplified is quite large.

i. T r y t o d r a w t h

name ampli2.sch.
ii. Then, set the appropiate analysis setup and simulate the circuit.
iii. Get the plot for V(IN) and V(OUT) separately.
iv. Give a comment on the output voltage that is produced by Pspice.

FEEDBACK 4c
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Answer :

When you have simulated the circuit without any error, you will get the plot as shown
in figure below:

Comment : Probe displays show that the output waveform is distorted. The output
waveform is clipped on the positive half-cycle; while the negative half-cycle is
blunted. The distortion of the output signal results because of the operating point
chosen causes the BJT to be saturated or cut off (or both) when an input signal is
applied.

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SELF-ASSESSMENT

You are approaching SUCCESS! Try to answer ALL the questions in this self-
assessment section and check your answers in the feedback section in the next page.
If you encounter any problem please discuss with your lecturer. Try your best
and SUCCESS is on your way! Good-Luck!!!

QUESTION 1-1

b. Draw the amplifier circuit below. (10 points)

b. Plot the voltage input and output waveform using Probe. (30 points)

c. Get the voltage gain (Av) from the amplifier circuit above. (10 points)
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FEEDBACK

Have you tried to answer the questions???

If “YES” , please check your answers
to see whether they are correct or not.

ANSWERS TO QUESTION 1-1:

b.

c. Av = Vo/Vin = 5.948 V = 132.29

44.959mV

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