TECHNICAL WORKSHOP MARATHON 2012

CIRCUIT ANALYSIS USING NGSPICE

VISHNU V

2nd Year M.Tech VLSI and Embedded Systems

Govt. Model Engineering College, Thrikkakara

 CONTENTS

SIMULATING A CIRCUIT IN NGSPICE


EXAMPLE CIRCUIT


NETLIST CREATION USING gEDA SCHEMATIC EDITOR


ANALYSIS OF BASIC CIRCUITS


HIGH PASS CIRCUIT AND DIFFERENTIATOR


LOW PASS CIRCUIT AND INTEGRATOR


RECTIFIER CIRCUITS


CLIPPER CIRCUITS


CLAMPER CIRCUITS
 Simulating a Circuit using NGSPICE
Steps

 Mark the nodes present in the circuit using

numbers or symbols (Try to mark Ground node
by '0')


Write the netlist (use texteditors such as gedit or
vi editor etc)for the circuit satisfying all the rules
and regulations.

 Save the netlist using .cir or .net extension.

3
 Simulating a Circuit using NGSPICE

 Open ngspice command window by typing

ngspice in terminal(bash,sash etc)

 Give the name of the saved netlist in ngspice

command window.
 EXAMPLE CIRCUIT

Simulation of a simple RC filter using NGSPICE

EXAMPLE CIRCUIT


Here there are three nodes


n0

n1

0


Also the components present are


A sinusoidal voltage source

A 3.3nF capacitor

A 1k resistor
 Writing NETLIST

 Title Line (First Line )

A simple RC High pass filter

 Component connections

V1 n0 0 SIN(0 10 1kHz)
C1 n0 n1 3.3nF
R n1 0 1k
 Writing NETLIST
 Control Lines

.CONTROL
TRAN 0.01ms 10ms
PLOT V(n0) V(n1)


END Lines

.ENDC
.END
 Total NETLIST

A Simple RC High pass filter

V1 n0 0 SIN(0 10 1kHz)
C1 n0 n1 3.3nF
R n1 0 1k
.CONTROL
TRAN 0 0.01ms 10ms
PLOT V( n0) V(n1)
.ENDC
.END
 SIMULATION STEPS
Save the above file as rc_filter.cir Terminal
STEP 1 : Open Terminal and type ngspice
Open Terminal and
Type ngspice

Ngspice command
terminal opens
 SIMULATION STEPS

STEP 2 : Give the file name of the netlist we have written

ie rc_filter.cir

Give the file name of the

netlist and press enter
 SIMULATION STEPS
TRANSIENT ANALYSIS OUTPUT

BASH TERMINAL
WAVE FORM WINDOW
 ANALYSIS OF WAVEFORM

Analyse the waveform

I
N
P
U
T

O
U
T
P
U
T
 PART II

NETLIST CREATION USING

gEDA SCHEMATIC EDITOR
 STEPS

 Draw the schematic of the circuit using gEDA

schematic editor

 Save the file with extension .sch

 Convert .sch file to .net file using gnetlister.

Command :
gnetlist -g spice -o rc_filter.net rc_filter.sch
DRAWING CIRCUIT IN gEDA SCHEMATIC EDITOR

SAVE THE ABOVE SCHEMATIC AS rc_filter.sch

 CONVERING SCHEMATIC TO NETLIST

Output File name Schematic Name

gnetlist -g spice -o rc_filter.net rc_filter.sch

NETLIST OBTAINED FROM SCHEMATIC

rc_filter.net
SIMULATING THE NETLIST
SIMULATING THE NETLIST

Name of the NETLIST

created using gnetlister
SIMULATING THE NETLIST
SIMULATING THE NETLIST : TRANSIENT ANALYSIS

Final Value
Indicates Transient Analysis
Increment value
SIMULATING THE NETLIST : TRANSIENT ANALYSIS
SIMULATING THE NETLIST : TRANSIENT ANALYSIS

PLOT V(2) V(1)

ANALYSIS OF THE WAVEFORM

GREEN COLOUR : INPUT WAVE

RED COLOUR : OUTPUT WAVEFORM
WHY THE AMPLITUDE OF THE
OUTPUT WAVEFORM IS VERY
LESS ??
 REASONS

 The Circuit is a High pass filter, so it passes only high

frequency signals.

 We have given an input sinusoidal waveform of

Amplitude = 10V and Frequency = 1kHz


Cut off frequency of the high pass filter is given by,
cutoff frequency= 1/(2*pi*R*C)

Here in this case

Cutoff frequency (3 dB frequency ) = 48.22kHZ
So, Give input sine wave frequency >= 48.22 kHz
 MODIFIED NETLIST

A Simple RC High pass filter

V1 n0 0 SIN(0 10 500kHz)
C1 n0 n1 3.3nF NEW INPUT FREQUENCY
R n1 0 1k
.CONTROL
TRAN 0.0001ms 0.1ms
PLOT n0 n1
.ENDC
.END
OUTPUT WAVEFORM
 AC ANALYSIS OF HIGH PASS FILTER

FOR AC ANALYSIS THE CONTROL SIGNAL IS

.AC <sweep type> <points value>

<start frequency> <end frequency>

(sweep type is either LIN,OCT or DEC)

Examples

.AC  LIN  16 60 600KHz

.AC  DEC  20 1  10kHz
NETLIST FOR AC ANALYSIS OF HIGH PASS FILTER

A Simple RC High pass filter

V1 n0 0 SIN(0 10 500kHz)
C1 n0 n1 3.3nF
R n1 0 1k AC ANALYSIS
.CONTROL
AC LIN 1000 0.1Hz 1000kHz
PLOT V(n1)
.ENDC
.END
AC ANALYSIS PLOT I
NETLIST FOR AC ANALYSIS OF HIGH PASS FILTER

A Simple RC High pass filter

V1 n0 0 SIN(0 10 500kHz)
C1 n0 n1 3.3nF
R n1 0 1k AC ANALYSIS
.CONTROL
AC DEC 10 100Hz 10000kHz
PLOT DB(V(n1)/V(n0))
.ENDC
.END
AC ANALYSIS PLOT II
HOW A HIGH PASS FILTER CAN BE
CONVERTED TO A
DIFFERENTIATOR CIRCUIT
 HIGH PASS FILTER AS DIFFERENTIATOR
The Condition in which a high pass filter acts as a
differentiator circuit is given by

RC << 0.0016T ; Where T = Time period of the input

signal

Question ?

Design a Differentiator Circuit which takes a pulse

waveform of frequency 1 kHz and perform its
transient analysis using NGSPICE....

Take the capacitor value as C = 3.3nF

DIFFERENTIATOR TRANSIENT RESPONSE
With RESISTOR VALUE, R = 47k
DIFFERENTIATOR TRANSIENT RESPONSE
With RESISTOR VALUE, R = 10k
RC LOW PASS FILTER
RC LOWPASS FILTER AC ANALYSIS PLOT
RC LOWPASS FILTER AS INTEGRATOR
 RECTIFIER CIRCUIT

WRITE THE NETLIST AND PLOT THE WAVEFORMS

RECTIFIER CIRCUIT OUTPUT
 CLIPPER CIRCUITS

POSITIVE CLIPPER

CLIPPING LEVEL : +5V

WRITE NETLIST AND OBTAIN THE OUTPUT WAVEFORM

POSITIVE CLIPPER OUTPUT WAVEFORM

+5V
 CLIPPER CIRCUITS

DOUBLE CLIPPER

CLIPPING LEVELS : +5V and -5V

WRITE NETLIST AND OBTAIN THE OUTPUT WAVEFORM

DOUBLE CLIPPER OUTPUT WAVEFORM

+5V

-5V
 CLAMPER CIRCUITS

SIMPLE POSITIVE CLAMPER CIRCUIT

OUTPUT WAVEFORM
 LAB SESSION

EXPERIMENTS

1. RC HIGH PASS CIRCUIT AND DIFFERENTIATOR

2. RC LOW PASS CIRCUIT AND INTEGRATOR

3. RECTIFIER CIRCUITS

4. CLIPPER CIRCUITS

5. CLAMPER CIRCUITS
 ASSIGNMENT I

PLOT THE FOLLOWING WAVEFORM USING NGSPICE

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