5.

27 Spice notes

There are no facts, only interpretations.

Friedrich Nietzsche

In this section we will outline a number of topics in relation to the use and application of PSpice that have arisen as a consequence of experience over many years.
Most of the books at present available that make use of SPICE refer to the preWindows versions of the software and are hence much involved in discussion of
the construction of netlists and the use of detailed commands. The Windows versions avoid much of this and save enormous eort, though it is desirable that some
understanding of the structure is obtained to allow a better appreciation of what
goes on behind the scenes, especially when problems arise. This is not intended as
an instructional manual for PSpice, which itself comes with the equivalent of
several substantial books of instruction. It is intended as a reminder of a number
of techniques and of some of the faults you may encounter. I am sure there are
many more, but these are matters that I have found relevant to analog simulation.
The comments refer to Version 8.
(a) A small but vital component required in every circuit is the common reference point. This is provided by the AGND symbol which indicates the zero
potential reference point. If it is not present there will be no complaint from
SPICE but it will probably wander o and disappear into a state of nonconvergence and hence failure.
(b) A necessary stage in any simulation is that the system can nd a selfconsistent starting conguration from where it can launch itself. If for any
reason this cannot be achieved then a fault will be indicated. Problems of this
sort are sometimes dicult to overcome as it is not evident what is causing
the failure to converge. The system is set to a certain maximum of iterations
before it fails, and the number is one of the parameters that can be changed,
but it is likely that increasing the number will not help. There are also tolerances on the degree of consistency that is acceptable, and these levels can also
be adjusted. It is, for example, often a problem with MOSFETs since the
range of currents that are encountered is so large, from picoamps of gate
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