LTSpice Tutorial
LTSpice Tutorial
LTSpice Tutorial
Engineers use software tools for the design and analysis of circuits. The software tools help to
simulate the behavior of electronic circuits in different operating conditions, and support the
design of circuits before actually building them using hardware.
SPICE (Simulation Program for Integrated Circuits Emphasis) is widely used circuit design and
analysis software in industry. SPICE was developed in the late 1970s by University of
California at Berkeley to design and analyze ICs. In the original SPICE, a circuit (all its
components and their inter connection) is described using a text file called netlist.
Currently there are several derivatives of the original SPICE developed by different companies.
Some of the popular derivatives of SPICE are Pspice (from OrCAD/ Cadence), Hspice (from
Avanti/Synopsys), LTspice (from Linear Technology) and others.
In the course B EE 215, we will introduce the basic functions of LTspice by simulating circuits
that we build in the experiments. LTspice is a powerful and fast software and has a schematic
capture, which is a GUI (graphical user interface) that is used to enter the circuit for simulation
using graphical symbols of components and wires.
Installing LTSpice:
LTspice is freely available software and can be downloaded from the website of Linear
Technology. To download LTspice
- visit http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/ltspice.jsp
- Select the Register on No Thanks option
- Run the LTspiceIV.exe file on your computer
- Install LTSpice
Simulation of circuits using LTspice:
Simulation of circuits using LTspice has two steps:
1. Drawing (editing) or entering the circuit using the schematic capture
2. Defining the desired type of simulation and running it.
I. Entering Circuit Using the Schematic Capture
a.) Starting Schematic Capture
-
Schematic
Graphic
Drawing a circuit is easier when the grid is active. To activate the grid, click on View and select
Show Grid.
b) Placing circuit elements:
There are buttons on the main menu for basic circuit elements including resistor, capacitor,
inductor, diode, wire as well as ground (GND). To place one of these circuit elements:
Note: another type of selecting elements is using the keyboard: r for resistor, c for capacitor,
l for inductor andd for diode.
Drag
Delete
Redo
Rotate Clockwise
Mirror
find
Draw wire
Place Ground
Place Comment
Label nodes
Undo
Place a resistor
Drag
Place a capacitor
Place an inductor
Place a diode
Move
Place Circuit Element
To place circuit elements beyond those shown on the main menu, we click the button Place
Circuit Element and we select the desired element from the list of elements that appears in a
window that looks like the figure shown below.
For example, if you want to place a voltage source
- Click the Place Circuit Element button
- Select Voltage from the element list and double click it.
- Move the mouse to the position where the voltage source is desired to be placed
- Press the left key of the mouse to place the voltage source and select the right mouse
to deactivate the voltage source selection.
Modifying an element: The value of a component can be changed or modified on a window that
emerges after clicking the right mouse key over the component. For example, after right clicking
the mouse over a resistor, the following window is displayed.
To change the value of the resistor enter the value in ohms in the entry for resistance or press the
Select Resistor button and choose the value from the list that appears.
II. Defining and Running Simulations
LTspice can be used to run several types of simulations. These types of simulation include:
- DC operating point
- Transient Analysis
- AC Analysis
- DC Sweep
- Noise
- DC transfer
In this course we will be limited to the DC operating point and transient analysis. In this first
tutorial we will explain the DC operating point. The other types of simulation will be explained
in subsequent tutorials.
a)
DC operating point: This type of simulation gives the value of voltages and currents
through nodes and components for a fixed input operating condition. The simulation results are
given in text format.
To run a dc operating point simulation:
- Select Simulate button from the main menu.
- From the pull-up menu of Simulate, select Edit Simulation Cmd
- Select DC op pnt button
- Select OK