IJECT Vol. 2, Issue 4, Oct. - Dec. 2011
ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print)
NI Circuit Design Suite: A Cosmic Aid for Undergraduate
Engineering Students
1
Tanvir Singh, 2Amritpal Singh, 3Amit Kumar, 4Rakesh Khanna
Dept. of ECE, IET, Bhaddal, Ropar, Punjab, India
2
Dept. of ECE, CIET, Rajpura, Punjab, India
3
College of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
1,4
Abstract
NI Circuit design suite is an easy-to-use schematic capture
and simulation environment that engineers, students,
and professors can use to define and simulate circuits.
NI Ultiboard and NI Multisim form a complete platform to
design, validate and layout printed circuit boards. The NI
Ultiboard interface enables efficient layout and routing of
PCB designs. Integration with NI Multisim allows seamless
transfer of schematics to layout. Multisim simplifies circuit
design by abstracting the complexity of SPICE simulation with
a fully interactive simulator. Multisim makes it easier to engage
students and reinforce theory. Students can understand the
different concepts of electronics very easily if they use Multisim
and Ultiboard during their courses. This paper describes the
use of Multisim and Ultiboard in an undergraduate Engineering
circuit’s analysis course.
Keywords
Multisim, NI, SPICE, Simulator, Ultiboard.
I. Introduction
The NI Ultiboard interface enables efficient layout and
routing of PCB designs. Integration with NI Multisim allows
seamless transfer of schematics to layout. The customizable
environment ensures accessibility to desired features for
immediate productivity. Tools such as the spreadsheet view,
toolbox and design wizards easily manage, control and define
any board layout. Part placement and copper routes are
optimized to either allow full control for precise definition of
critical parts or automation for quick design completion. The
3D preview renders a completed, populated board to gain a
virtual perspective before production. Ultiboard exports and
produces industry standard format such as Gerber and DXF
to take a final, optimized board to prototype and manufacture.
This paper describes the use of Multisim and Ultiboard in an
undergraduate Engineering circuit’s analysis course.
II. Multisim
Multisim was originally called Electronics Workbench and
created by a company called Interactive Image Technologies.
At the time it was mainly used as an educational tool to teach
electronics technician and electronics engineering programs
in colleges and universities. Educators worldwide are using the
academic features of the Multisim education edition to foster
learning and guide student exploration of circuit concepts.
Multisim is an easy-to-use circuit teaching environment that
simplifies circuit design by abstracting the complexity of
SPICE simulation with a fully interactive simulator. You can
bring circuit concepts to life through simulation without worrying
about SPICE syntax. With Multisim, students can focus on
understanding the circuit concepts instead of getting frustrated
with learning the environment [4, 5]. They can modify circuit
values on the fly and see the simulation results change in
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real time.
A. Technology of EDA
The technology of EDA (Electronic Design Automation) is an
innovation in the field of electronic design. It transforms the
circuit design measure based on variable estimate and circuit
experiment. Multisim is special software for electronic circuit
design and simulation. It can complete the whole process
from circuit simulation designed to circuit diagram created,
thereby providing a new and convenient approach for electronic
system exploitation, electronic product and electronic system
engineering. Circuit simulation is an important part of any
design process [3]. By simulating your circuits, you can detect
errors early in the process, and avoid costly and time consuming
prototype reworking.
B. Ease of Components
In Multisim, in order to connect different components, we need
to place them on a breadboard as we perform practically on a
breadboard. The default breadboard in NI Multisim is shown
in fig. 1.
Fig. 1: Default Breadboard
Find the component you need to teach the concepts you want
with more than 14,000 components in the Component Library.
These components and unique parts are clearly organized and
searchable. Multisim also has commonly used components,
including symbols, models, and IPC-standard land patterns,
from leading manufacturers such as Analog Devices, Linear
Technology, Maxim Microchip, National Semiconductor, and
Texas Instruments to introduce students to components used
in industry [1, 4]. Fig. 2 shows the component reference help
for sophomore or freshman.
The unique types of components in Multisim are listed
below:
1. Interactive components such as switches and
potentiometers can be manipulated while the simulation
is running.
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IJECT Vol. 2, Issue 4, Oct. - Dec. 2011
ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print)
2. Animated components such as LEDs and seven-segment
displays change their appearance in response to simulation
results.
3. Virtual components allow you to set their parameters to
any value you like — even if you cannot actually find a part
with those values in real life. This is great for illustrating
theoretical concepts.
4. Rated components enhance student learning by “blowing
up” if certain parameters (for example, power or current)
are exceeded.
Fig. 3: PCB Design Layout
Fig. 2: Component reference help
III. Ultiboard
NI Ultiboard software provides an easy-to-use and intuitive
platform to layout and route a printed circuit board (PCB) design.
With Ultiboard, you can complete the entire layout process,
from part placement to copper routing, in a flexible design
environment that optimizes speed and control. Automated
processes, such as the integrated advanced auto router,
quickly define noncritical trace placement, while manual
trace placement ensures the precise control to efficiently
take a design to prototype. Trace placement in Ultiboard offers
flexibility to quickly and efficiently adjust based on the degree of
design complexity [7]. Quickly find and place components with
Pick-and-Place and Component Sequencer functionality.
Integration with NI Multisim allows seamless transfer of
schematics to layout. The customizable environment ensures
accessibility to desired features for immediate productivity.
Tools such as the spreadsheet view, toolbox and design wizards
easily manage, control and define any board layout. Fig. 3 shows
the PCB Design Layout in NI Ultiboard.
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International Journal of Electronics & Communication Technology
A. Benefits of Ultiboard
1. Layout and routing tools to easily define copper and part
placement
2. Cross-probing with Multisim ensures comprehensive
understanding of design at schematic and layout
3. Flexible and integrated design environment offers unlimited
pin counts and up to 64-layer designs
4. Easy-to-use tools for part placement such as push-andshove, pick-and-place, and auto placement
5. Advanced options and settings to prioritize placement, as
well as group and layer routing.
NI provides vast manual along with software which is present
in documentation. It results in very helpful in understanding NI
Ultiboard. In NI Manual, one can get information about following
parts:
• User interface
• Beginning a Design
• Setting up a Design
• Working with Parts
• Working with Traces and Copper
• PCB Calculators
• Auto routing and Auto placement
• Preparing for Manufacturing/Assembly.
• Viewing Designs in 3D
• Using Mechanical CAD
IV. Powerful Teaching Options for Educators
Designed with the educator in mind, Multisim incorporates
academic features that simplify the teaching of circuit concepts
and electronics. You can customize the Multisim user interface
as well as the instruments and analyses that are available to
control what a student can see and access within a circuit [2,
6]. This provides a range of powerful teaching options and the
flexibility to introduce concepts in a controlled fashion so you
can match the software’s complexity to the student’s level or
course content. You also can easily add narrative and graphics
to circuit files to further explain concepts in a lab or selfstudy environment. In addition, you can create and distribute
reusable simulation profiles, each of which contains a complete
SPICE parameter setup to ensure your students complete
their assignments successfully as they become familiar with
simulation. Circuit restrictions provide instructors the ability
to set up hidden faults to teach troubleshooting skills. Fig. 4
shows the snapshot of Pulse Width Modulator.
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IJECT Vol. 2, Issue 4, Oct. - Dec. 2011
By seeing these example finder we can say that NI Multisim is
an easy-to-use schematic capture and simulation environment
that engineers, students, and professors can use to define and
simulate circuits.
Fig. 4: Pulse width modulator
Students can understand the concepts of various electronics
circuits and analysis on Multisim by seeking examples already
present in the help and also can design their own circuits and
then can simulate. Fig. 5 shows the Differential Amplifier which
is mostly used by engineering students in their courses.
Fig. 5: Differential amplifier
V. NI Example Finder
With Multisim, students can drop simulation-driven instruments
onto a circuit schematic and interact with a circuit just like
in the hardware lab. They can make measurements, probe,
and troubleshoot engage students and reinforce theory with a
hands-on approach to digital electronics by making hardware
implementation. Fig. 6 shows the NI Example Finder to browse
and search installed examples on NI Developer Zone.
VI. Conclusion
Electronics Workbench’s Multisim is a circuit simulation platform
that can model the behavior of particular analog or digital
circuit. We can design any circuit and can analyses behavior
of entire circuit by performing DC, AC or transient analysis.
We have access to thousands of parts and components,
whereas Ultiboard is the PCB layout application of National
Instruments Circuit Design Suite, a suite of EDA (Electronic
Design Automation) tools that assists you in carrying out the
major steps in the circuit design flow. Ultiboard is used to
design printed circuit boards, perform certain basic mechanical
CAD operations, and prepare them for manufacturing. It also
provides automated parts placement and layout.
References
[1] Mohamad Eid,“Introduction to Multisim”, [Online]
Available: http://www.g9toengineering.com/the
wellroundedengineer/MultiSimtutorial%201.pdf
[2] Liao Wei, Liu Jingao, Wang Shuxian, “Research of
Multisim in the Experiment Teaching”, [Online]Available:
http://www.ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.
jsp?arnumber=4722952
[3] “Principles of Electrical Engineering Lab 1”, Multisim
Manual, [Online] Available: http://www.ece.rutgers.
edu/~psannuti/ece223/Manual-for-multisim.pdf
[4] Temitope Marcus, Rafael Romero,“Electronic Workbench
Multisim Tutorial (Basic)”, [Online] Available: http://www.
csus.edu/indiv/t/tatror/Engr_1A/.../MultiSim_Tutorial.
pdf. 2006.
[5] Muthuswamy, Bharathwaj, “MultiSim Tutorial”, [Online]
Available: http://www.inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~ee100/
su06/..
./EE100-MultiSim-Tutorial.pdf. 2006.
[6] Electronics Workbench, “Multisim 8 Simulation and capture
for Educators”, [Online] Available: http://proton.ucting.
udg.mx/tutorial/multisim/.../MultiSim_8_Educators.pdf.
2005.
[7] National Instruments, “NI Developer Zone”, [Online]
Available: http://www.zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/
id/5611
Fig. 6: NI Example Finder
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International Journal of Electronics & Communication Technology 159
IJECT Vol. 2, Issue 4, Oct. - Dec. 2011
ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print)
Tanvir Singh is pursuing his bachelor’s
degree in Electronics and Communication
from I.E.T., Bhaddal, Ropar (Punjab
Technical University), Punjab, INDIA. He
is working as a budding researcher in field
of research on topics Green Computing
and Sustainability with a dream to create
a Technical Advanced and eco- friendly
world. He has published many papers in
International Journals and conference proceedings.
Amritpal Singh is pursuing his
bachelor’s degree in Electronics and
Communication from C.I.E.T., Rajpura,
Patiala, (Punjab Technical University),
Punjab, INDIA. He is working as a
researcher in field of Green Computing
and Sustainability with a dream to
create a Technical Advanced and ecofriendly world.
Amit Kumar received his bachelor’s
degree in Mathematics from the
Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla,
India, in 2002 and Masters degree in
Computer Application from Kurukshetra
University, Kurukshetra, India, in 2006.
He completed his M.Phil. in Computer
Science from Annamalai University,
Annamalainagar, Tamilnadu, India, in
2010. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D.
in Computer Science. He is working as a Lecturer in the
Department of Computer Science, College of Information
Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing,
China. He has many publications in National /International
Conference proceedings and International Journals. He is a
reviewer for many international Journals. His current interest
includes Techno-Economic Analysis of Broadband Wireless
Networks viz. WiMAX, HSPA, EV-DO and LTE. His future focus
is to explore the Green Wireless Technologies and Sustainable
development.
Rakesh Khanna has completed
M.Tech. from PTU Jalandhar, Punjab,
India and currently pursuing his Ph.D.
from PTU Jalandhar, Punjab, India. He
has a vast experience (Technical and
Academic) in the field of Electronics and
Communication Engineering as well as
Instrumentation. He is presently working
as Head of Department at IET, Bhaddal,
Ropar, Punjab, India.
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