9/24/21, 7:39 AM Book review: Analog Design and Simulation using OrCAD Capture and PSpice

Book review: Analog Design and Simulation using

OrCAD Capture and PSpice
edn.com/book-review-analog-design-and-simulation-using-orcad-capture-and-pspice/

Brian Bailey January 31, 2013

In the EDA sector, there are a lot of books about

research and new techniques, or how to learn and
use new languages, but there are not many how-to,
practical books that enable you to come up to speed
with a tool. We tend to rely on the tool vendor and
their user guides or tutorials, but often these are not
the most helpful of texts as they are not written by
real users who have struggled with learning it from
scratch and as such often assume a lot of knowledge
that isn’t there or go to the trivial end and almost
teach you how to use a graphical interface.

So, I was pleased to be sent a copy of “Analog

Design and Simulation using OrCAD Capture and
PSpice” by Dennis Fitzpatrick – a book recently published (2012) by Newness (Elsevier).
So, who is Dennis Fitzpatrick? Well, first he is a Brit, and when you hear a British accent,
you know he should be believed at all times – except you can’t get the accent from the book.
Well, Dennis has also worked in the electronics industry for over 15 years with experience of
analogue (yup that is a British accent right there) and digital IC design. He gained
experience using the Cadence EDA software tools and ultimately ended up working for
OrCAD and then Cadence as a Senior Lead Engineer specializing in the IC and board level
analog, digital simulation and Signal Integrity tools before becoming an expert in PSpice.
Dennis worked at Cadence for eight years providing support and delivering Cadence EDA
software training courses. He joined the University of West London in 2007 as a senior
lecturer teaching a wide range of electronic engineering subjects and now is a Reader in the
University’s Institute for Practice, Interdisciplinary Research and Enterprise (INPSIRE)
conducting Biomedical research and heads the Biomedical engineering and DSP research
group.

This book is aimed at electronic engineers and students.

Let’s take a quick look at the chapters.

Chapter 1 Getting Started – This chapter talks about things such as setting up projects and
some of the basics associated with entering circuits. It finishes, as do all of the chapters with
a number of exercises. You can download a free copy of OrCAD PCB Designer Lite here.

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9/24/21, 7:39 AM Book review: Analog Design and Simulation using OrCAD Capture and PSpice

Chapter 2 DC Bias Point Analysis –

When you apply power to most circuits,
they will reach a stable condition
known as the DC steady-state
condition. Here, all voltages and
currents have stabilized, initial
conditions set and capacitors fully
charged. This is basically the starting
point for other kinds of analysis such
as transient analysis which is when
input stimulus is provided. This chapter
takes you through a PSpice analysis
and display capabilities. This can be
saved and used to start off other
simulations.

Chapter 3 DC Analysis – Perhaps you

want to know how the circuit DC
conditions vary depending on supply
voltage or other changes in operating
conditions. This chapter tells you all
about it and how to set up sweeps so
that things such as transistor
characteristic curves can be created.

Chapter 4 AC Analysis – Enough of the steady state – it is

time to apply signals and AC analysis is used to calculate the
frequency and phase response of a circuit. AC analysis
assumes that everything is linear and thus analysis can use
simpler and faster models, but you had better be sure that
you aren’t clipping or any non-linear behaviors in the design.
This is useful for finding out how filters behave.

Chapter 5 Parametric Sweep – Similar to chapter 3, this

looks at varying parameters of the design for AC analysis
and is performed by varying a parameter in the design. This
chapter is very heavy on the practical exercises.

Chapter 6 Stimulus Editor – Not all inputs are simple sine waves that cover the linear part of
the design. Sometimes you want to apply transient stimulus and this is done using a
waveform editor. This chapter takes you through the various kinds of stimulus generators
that exist and how to prepare for a transient analysis.

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9/24/21, 7:39 AM Book review: Analog Design and Simulation using OrCAD Capture and PSpice

Chapter 7 Transient Analysis – This is where you really start to learn about PSpice
simulation and the notion of the timestep. Several exercises help you to understand the
basics and how to create files with discrete time and voltage data.

Chapter 8 Convergence Problems and Error Messages. Even with variable time steps, there
can be cases when the simulator fails to converge to a solution – often caused by a non-
linearity or when faced with a step input. Other simulation errors are also discussed.

Chapter 9 Transformers. As the title implies, this chapter deals with the subject of
transformers including linear, non-linear and predefined transformers.

Chapter 10 Monte Carlo Analysis. PSpice simulation, while a very efficient simulator for what
it does, can take a long time for complex designs or for those that contain many variables
that could be varied as part of the simulation process. Instead of simulating all of them, a
statistical process is usually used called Monte Carlo analysis.

Chapter 11 Worst Case Analysis. Designs are sensitive to variations in certain components,
but it can help to know which ones are the critical ones. Once known, it becomes easier to
find the worst case conditions in a design so that sufficient design tolerances can be used.

Chapter 12 Performance Analysis. Knowing the value of a voltage or current is one thing, but
there are many other kinds of measurement that might be useful, such as the bandwidth or
center frequency of a waveform.

Chapter 13 Analog Behavioral Models. So far all of the models have been circuit level
models, but there are times when a more abstract model may allow analysis that could not
be performed at the low level. This chapter looks at abstract voltage-controlled sources.

Chapter 14 Noise Analysis. Where does noise come from and how do you model it? This
chapter gets you started on the subject.

Chapter 15 Temperature Analysis. Temperature affects almost all electronic devices and this
is one sweep that most people will want to run. This may be especially true if you are
working on circuitry for cars or other extreme environments.

Chapter 16 Adding and Creating PSpice Models. So far, the devices have come from a
library of models, but what do you do if the device you need isn’t there? This chapter
introduces you to the model editor.

Chapter 17 Transmission Lines. Signal integrity is perhaps one of the thorniest problems for
all high-speed interconnect and this chapter starts to introduce you to a few of the
fundamentals.

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9/24/21, 7:39 AM Book review: Analog Design and Simulation using OrCAD Capture and PSpice

Chapter 18 Digital Simulation. While the world is analog, most complex chips contain
significant amounts of digital logic. This chapter provides you with some of the basic
information.

Chapter 19 Mixed Simulation. At the end of the day, every system is a mixture of analog and
digital and it may be important to simulate the two pieces together. Neither simulator can do
it all, so it is important to understand how to run them cooperatively.

Chapter 20 Creating Hierarchical Designs. Almost no design is created from scratch and
neither is it practical to design it without employing some amount of hierarchy. This can help
with things such as project management, verification and dealing with complexity. This is a
meaty chapter and necessarily so.

Chapter 21 Magnetic Parts Editor. When designing circuits such as switch mode power
supplies, transformers and inductors play an important part. These can be modeled with the
Magnetic parts editor.

Chapter 22 Test Benches. It is sometimes necessary to add additional parts to a design in

order to perform a simulation, and these can be contained in a testbench rather than having
to modify the design.

Overall opinion

The book has divided the problem into many parts and each is tackled at a reasonable pace.
A lot of learning is contained in the exercises, so it is important to make sure you have
downloaded OrCAD PCB Designer Lite. It can be obtained here.

This is a great introduction to a complex subject and is very reasonably priced at $69.95 or
cheaper at places such as Amazon. I highly recommend it for anyone looking at this subject
for the first time.

Cadence has also made the full suite of OrCAD tools available to students on a yearly basis.

Brian Bailey – keeping you covered

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