Running a Basic MPLAB® Mindi™ Analog Simulation
The following steps demonstrate how to run a basic Mindi simulation on a sampled circuit (Tutorial1.sxsch). After the simulations, we will create some simulation plots. The circuit is one of the tutorials you can find in the example files. It consists of three stages: emitter follower, common base amplifier, and a second emitter follower. The circuit offers voltage gain without any phase shift.
The example files are first installed by default atC:\Program Files (x86)\MPLAB Mindi_800\support\examples. These files are copied to yourMy Documents folder when MPLAB Mindi starts the first time if you chose such option. If you can’t find the example files, you may need to manually copy them from the default location to any location of your choice.
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After launching the tool, itsMain Window appears. ClickFile (top left),Open, and then navigate to~Documents\MPLAB Mindi\Examples-80\SIMetrix\Tutorials. Select the schematic fileTutorial1, then clickOpen.
A schematic window will open with the following circuit:
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This amplifier is designed to amplify a 100 mV (AC) with a gain of 5. This circuit has been set up to run transient simulation. To start the simulation, select from the schematic windowSimulator | Run Schematic or pressF9. You will see a graph of the output voltage vs. time on the right and aSimulator - Complete pop-up window showing the simulation analysis type (in this caseTransient), netlist location, and simulation time range:
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On the simulation plot, note that there is substantial ringing on the rising edge of the amplifier output. To view it closely, hover the mouse over the area of interest and drag to include the area you want to zoom in.
You can clickView from the top menu to show zoom and scroll options. To zoom in, you can use shortcut key:Shift+F12. To zoom out, useF12.
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You can add cursors on the plots to measure input and output values and ranges. ClickCursors, selectToogle On/Off.
Toggle cursor On/Off, shortcut key:C
Once the cursors appear, you can drag and drop the dotted lines (top/bottom or left/right) to adjust the measuring range.
SIMPLIS is a circuit simulator specifically designed to handle the simulation challenges of switching power systems. Like SPICE, SIMPLIS works at the component level but can typically perform a transient analysis of a switching circuit 10 to 50 times faster. For switching power systems, the piecewise linear (PWL) modeling and simulation techniques employed by SIMPLIS result in qualitatively superior convergence behavior compared to SPICE.
SIMetrix is a general analog and mixed-signal simulator. It includes an enhanced SPICE simulator, schematic editor and waveform viewer in a unified environment. It is easy to use, offers good accuracy and performance, and rapid convergence for a broad range of analog and mixed-signal design applications.
