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5.27 Spice notes

(L) Stimulus generation: See sources (K).

(M) Signal generating circuits; multiplying and summing: Two parts that are useful
for generating more complex signals are the MULT and SUM. Each has two
inputs and carries out the indicated process on these. Together, or with others,
they can be used to construct or process many types of signal. These are
control system parts (there are many more) and can be connected together
with no need for dummy load or input resistors.
(N) Libraries: PSpice comes with an extensive set of libraries but if you are only
using the educational version then the libraries are severely limited. Device
manufacturers provide libraries for their own products and you may be able
to nd what you need from such sources, but the reduced version of PSpice
allows only a limited number of libraries to be loaded and a limited number
of components in any library. It is then necessary to create your own User
Library into which you can put models for those particular devices you need.
Libraries are straightforward text les and are reasonably easy to read and to
see the extent of a given model. An asterisk indicates a comment line (which
is disregarded) and the model ends with a .END and usually a .$. Cutting and
pasting is direct, though PSpice may object when you start as there is an index
le (nom.lib) which tells PSpice where to nd a model, and if the libraries have
been altered it will have to make a new index. If the changes are to your User
Library then PSpice will only have to make a new index le for this and not
for the whole library set which could take a long time. If you do have an additional library le remember again to make this evident under ANALYSIS/
LIBRARY AND INCLUDE FILES.
(O) Signicance of parameters in models, e.g. FETs (Vladimirescu 1994, p. 384)
and BJTs (Vladimirescu p. 87): The meaning of symbols used for the various
parameters in a device model are not usually obvious. It is of course rather
dangerous to alter any of these unless you do know what you are doing, but
it is sometimes useful to know the value of some parameter being used for a
particular device. For example, you may wish to know the junction capacity
(CJO) or the reverse recovery time for a diode (TT or transition time is
specied from which trr may be obtained: see Hambley 1994, p.673), or the
breakdown voltage of a Zener diode. Tables of the parameters are given in
many books on SPICE, e.g. Vladimirescu (1994), Hambley (1994), Schubert
and Kim (1996).
(P) Indexes: The compilation of an index for books and manuals is a laborious
and unexciting task and many do not seem to have been done carefully or by
a considerate mind (there is my hostage to fortune, but I hope you will let me
know of my omissions). Just because a word does not appear in the index does
not necessarily mean that there is no treatment of that topic so rootle around
using a bit of lateral thinking in case it is referred to by another name. For