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Back-Annotation of DC-Operating-Point-Simulations in the schematic

 

It is possible to display net voltages, terminal currents and device parameters in the schematic.

DC net voltages are displayed after selecting the menu entry showvolt and selecting a net afterwards. With a second left mouseclick, you can place the text label whereever you want. This is different compared to schematic entries from EDA companies where the position of these labels is chosen automatically. This is easier for the user, but the schematic window is then filled with huge amounts of information from which only 1% is really needed. Using SPICECAD , the user decides what he or she wants to know and see.

The display of terminal currents works similarly: choose showcurr and klick at a terminal contact of a voltage source. If you have executed save cont curs and chosen several objects inside the schematic window (in whose terminal currents you are interested in) before running the simulation, you can also click at these terminals. These terminals are printed in yellow instead of in red to remind you that the currents through these terminals have been stored.

If you want to display device information (where device means sources, transistors, resistors, capacitors etc. ), execute showdevice. Each time you select a device, a 'SPICE3F5-show'-command is issued by SPICECAD which displays the desired information in the xterm-window in which you have started SPICECAD.

If you use other simulators than SPICE3, the showdevice command is a little bit limited. Here, showdevice only displays the dc operating point of MOS and bipolar transistors.

When using spice3, the command displays the requested information inside the xterm window where you have started SPICECAD. When using HSPICE, the information is displayed inside the message and warning dialog box, which pops up automatically after selecting a device.


next up previous contents
Next: Plotting schematics Up: SPICECAD The Schematic Entry Previous: Circuit optimization
Martin Maschmann
1999-10-10