Tietze/Schenk - MicroSim PSpice Evaluation
Tietze/Schenk - MicroSim PSpice Evaluation
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Content
Introduction
Important note for users of Microsoft Windows Vista
Installation
Running the simulation examples
Creating simulations
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Introduction
When looking for a circuit simulation tool to complement the book Electronic Circuits, we have decided to use MicroSim PSpice
Evaluation 8 despite the fact that it is a rather old suite of programs and MicroSim is off the market since the company was acquired
by OrCAD in 1998. There are later evaluation versions available, but Evaluation 8 is the latest version that includes MicroSim's
nice-looking and easy-to-use circuit schematic entry tool Schematics. Evaluation 8 is a self-contained suite of programs with
consistent appearance while later suites were compiled by using programs with di fferent appearance and different handling.
Furthermore, Evaluation 8 imposes less severe limitations on circuit complexity. It limits the number of transistors and diodes to 10
and the number of circuit elements to 50. This limits the number of operational amplifiers to a maximum of 2 because models of
operational amplifiers typically include several transistors. These limitations can be circumvented by using special behavioural
models as an alternative to transistors and operational amplifiers. The number of behavioural models is not limited explicitly, so a
maximum of 50 models can be used. This greatly increases the complexity of the circuits that can be simulated.
To fully exploit the capabilities of Evaluation 8, we have designed a lot of spe cial behavioural models which are located in 2 model
libraries. We have also created a library with integrated transistors to simulat e the specific behavior of these devices. These libraries
replace some of the libraries that come with Evaluation 8. Furthermore, we supply dozens of simulation examples which use these
libraries.
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Important note for users of Microsoft Windows Vista
The programs of MicroSim PSpice Evaluation 8, the installation programs, and the transparent helper application WinTSE do not
comply with the identification procedures used by Microsoft Windows Vista. As a consequence, these programs are regarded as
being potentially harmful and you will be asked to grant access to your computer .
To successfully install and operate the software, you have to choose Allow for the following programs: setup.exe (installer for
MicroSim PSpice Evaluation 8); tsesetup.exe (installer for libraries and examples); wintse.exe (transparent helper application to
launch simulation examples); appmgr.exe, msgview.exe, optimize.exe, parts.exe, pcboards.exe, pdesign.exe, plsyn.exe, probe.exe,
psched.exe, pspicead.exe, stmed.exe, textedit.exe (programs of MicroSim PSpice Evaluation 8).
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Unfortunately, the Help
menu functions of MicroSim PSpice Evaluation 8 will not work with Microsoft Windows Vista because the help viewer
WinHlp32.exe has been stripped off from the operating system (see KB917607). We recommend to install the help viewer from here.
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Installation
The installation of MicroSim PSpice Evaluation 8 und the related libraries and simulation examples is done in 3 steps:
1. Installation of Adobe Acrobat Reader if not already installed
2. Installation of MicroSim PSpice Evaluation 8
3. Installation of libraries and simulation examples (TS-examples)
Installation of Adobe Acrobat Reader
Please download the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader from here. The installation is straightforward. If you don't have access
to the internet, you can use the version provided in the folder AcrobatReader on the CDROM.
Installation of MicroSim PSpice Evaluation 8
Start the installer setup.exe in the folder PSpice
on the CDROM. Users of Microsoft Windows Vista will be asked to allow the access as described above. The installation is
straightforward: simply choose Next when the installer steps through the following popup windows.
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The installer updates the registry by defining several file extensions. It may h appen that some of these file extensions are already
used by other programs. In this case, the following popup window lists the respe ctive file extensions (STL in this example). Because
the drag-and-drop and double-click functions are not needed, we recommend to cho ose No.
Uncheck the option and choose Finish to complete the installation.
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Installation of libraries and simulation examples (TS-examples)
Start the installer tsesetup.exe in the folder PSpice
on the CDROM. Users of Microsoft Windows Vista will be asked to allow the access as described above. Choose Allow to proceed.
The following popup window appears. Choose Ok to start the installation.
The installer creates a program group in the start menu and desktop symbols. This can be done for all users or for the current user
only. Please make your choice and proceed with Ok.
The following popup window completes the installation.
Users of Microsoft Windows Vista have to confirm that the installation has been successful. Choose This program installed
correctly.
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Running the simulation examples
The simulation examples are accessed via the desktop symbol TS-examples or via All programs/Tietze-Schenk/TS examples in the
start menu.
Starting TS examples
opens a browser window which displays the directory of PSpice examples. The main categories are listed in the left part of the
window. By choosing one of the items, the directory of the respective category w ill be loaded into the right part of the window. The
right part is used to select sub-directories and simulations. Choosing Directory in the left part will load the top-level directory into
the right part.
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To give an example, we choose Analog Computing Circuits
to display the simulations belonging to this category. Two simulations are listed: analog_multiplier and log_circuit. The links Go
back and Goto top provide the means for navigating through the examples. We choose analog_multiplier.
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The following window provides some information about the simulation example, its parameters, and the predefined displays.
Predefined displays are used to display the results of the simulations as will b e described later on. We conclude that the simulation
example performs a DC simulation and has a predefined display named characteristics. We now choose Start example.
When we choose Start example for the first time, several popup windows appear. The popup window with the hea der File
Download appears because the browser has detected a new file type with the extension tse. Files of this type are used to start PSpice,
so we have to choose Open. We don't want to be asked again, so we uncheck the option Always ask before opening this type of
file.
When we choose Open, the current tse file (analog_multiplier.tse in the example) is passed to the helper application WinTSE. The
helper application launches MicroSim PSpice Evaluation (if not already running) and passes the respective circuit schematic to the
program MicroSim Schematics. Users of Microsoft Windows Vista will be asked to allow the access as describe d above. Choose
Allow to proceed.
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An additional popup window with the header Information Bar may appear. Please check the option Don't show this message again
and proceed with Close.
From now on, the popup windows File Download and Information Bar will not appear again but users of Microsoft Windows Vista
will be asked to grant access to the helper application WinTSE at any time a simulation is selected from the directory of PSpice
examples.
The circuit schematic ANALOG_MULTIPLIER is displayed in the window MicroSim Schematics as follows.
To start the simulation, we choose Analysis/Simulate from the menu or press
.
Most simulations are completed within fractions of a second but some simulations may required several seconds.
When running the first simulation, the following popup window appears. Please ch eck the option Don't show this message again
and proceed with Ok.
If the simulation has parameters, the following popup window Available Sections appears. All sections are selected by default.
Because it is rather uncommon to select individual sections (the authors have never used this feature), we proceed with Ok.
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Many simulations include only one of the three available analysis types (AC, DC, Transient). In this case, the program MicroSim
Probe
displays the results of the respective analysis type without further selection. In our example, a plot with the characteristics of the
analog multiplier is displayed. The appearance of this plot is defined by the pr edefined display characteristics mentioned in the
directory of PSpice examples. There are no other predefined displays available, so this concludes the example.
If the simulation includes more than one analysis type, we first have to select an analysis type for display. To demonstrate this, we
switch to the simulation example common_emitter_circuit which is located in the category Bipolar
Transistor/common_emitter_circuit. This example includes all three analysis types. For the moment we select AC.
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When selecting an analysis type, the results are not displayed automatically as has been the case in our last example. So we get an
empty plot as follows. The plot indicates that we have chosen the analysis type AC by showing the frequency on the x axis.
We choose Tools/Display Control
from the menu to get a list of predefined displays that are part of the simulation example. There are two predefined displays available:
frequency_response and input_impedance. We choose frequency_response by double-clicking. Alternatively, we may select the
desired item an press Restore.
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The predefined display shows the magnitude in dB (Vdb(Vo)) and the phase (Vp(Vo) ) of the circuit.
To switch to the other analysis types, we have to choose Plot/DC or Plot/Transient from the menu followed by Tools/Display
Control to select a predefined display as described above. This concludes the example.
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Creating simulations
Please refer to the Brief User's Guide in chapter 29.1 of the book Electronic Circuits to learn how to create and run your own
simulations. Additional information can be found in the PSpice manuals. As mentioned in the introduction, we have replaced some
of the libraries that come with MicroSim PSpice Evaluation 8. The new libraries and the circuit elements that are provided by these
libraries are described in the following documents.
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Document
Content
TSE_analog.htm
Passive elements and sources
TSE_bipolar.htm
Discrete bipolar transistors and diodes
TSE_fet.htm
Discrete field effect transistors
TSE_integrated.htm Integrated transistors
TSE_model.htm
Behavioral models, part 1
TSE_model2.htm
Behavioral models, part 2
Copies of these documents can be found in the folder MSimEv_8\UserLib and can be accessed without inserting the CDROM.
To create your own simulations, start PSpice via the desktop symbol TS PSpice or via All programs/Tietze-Schenk/TS PSpice in
the start menu.
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