CircuitLogix is a

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

electronic circuit simulator which uses PSpice to simulate thousands of

electronic devices Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. It is a subfield of physics and ...

, models, and circuits. CircuitLogix supports analog,

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

, and mixed-signal circuits, and its

SPICE In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...

simulation gives accurate real-world results. The

graphic user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and visual indicators such as secondary notation. In many applications, GUIs are used instead of te ...

allows students to quickly and easily draw, modify and combine analog and digital

circuit diagram A circuit diagram (or: wiring diagram, electrical diagram, elementary diagram, electronic schematic) is a graphical representation of an Electrical network, electrical circuit. A pictorial circuit diagram uses simple images of components, whil ...

s. CircuitLogix was first launched in 2005, and its popularity has grown quickly since that time. In 2012, it reached the milestone of 250,000 licensed users, and became the first electronics simulation product to have a global

installed base Installed base of a product is the number of units that are currently in use by customers. It provides a measurement of a company's existing customer base and the extent of their investment in a particular product or technology. In contrast to m ...

of a quarter-million customers in over 100 countries. CircuitLogix was developed by Dr. Colin Simpson, an electronics professor at

George Brown College The George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technology is a public, fully accredited college (Canada), college of applied arts and technology with three campuses in downtown Toronto (Ontario, Canada). Like many other colleges in Ontario, George ...

, in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and John (Bud) Skinner, a

computer programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a progr ...

. The electronics program has won awards including the Award of Excellence from the

Association of Canadian Community Colleges Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) is a voluntary membership organization established in 1972 that represents public colleges, institutes, polytechnics, and CEGEPs in Canada. The organization advocates for its members with the federal gover ...

(ACCC). The professional version of CircuitLogix (CircuitLogix Pro) includes over 10,000 device models, as well as 8 virtual instruments. It also includes 3DLab, which is a software product that combines an interactive 3-dimensional learning environment and electronic devices and tools to enhance the user's comprehension of electronics. 3DLab virtual components include batteries,

switches In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type o ...

motors An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

, lamps,

resistors A resistor is a passive two-terminal electronic component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active e ...

inductors An inductor, also called a coil, choke, or reactor, is a passive two-terminal electrical component that stores energy in a magnetic field when an electric current flows through it. An inductor typically consists of an insulated wire wound into a ...

capacitors In electrical engineering, a capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. The capacitor was originally known as the condenser, a term st ...

and instruments including

oscilloscopes An oscilloscope (formerly known as an oscillograph, informally scope or O-scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying voltages of one or more signals as a function of time. Their main purpose is capturing ...

signal generator A signal generator is one of a class of Electronics, electronic devices that generates electrical signals with set properties of amplitude, frequency, and wave shape. These generated signals are used as a stimulus for electronic measurements, typ ...

s, and

frequency counter A frequency counter is an electronics, electronic measuring instrument, instrument, or Electronic component, component of one, that is used for measuring frequency. Frequency counters usually measure the number of cycles of oscillation or pulses p ...

Overview

Fast, accurate simulation of electronic circuits is essential because it provides the information needed to perform accurate analysis of circuit behavior.

simulators are used to verify that analog and mixed-signal circuits will yield the expected outputs. A schematic

netlist In electronic design, a netlist is a description of the connectivity of an electronic circuit. In its simplest form, a netlist consists of a list of the electronic components in a circuit and a list of the nodes they are connected to. A netwo ...

file and circuit input values are fed to the SPICE software, which simulates the circuit's behavior for a specified length of time. CircuitLogix allows for the observation of voltage and current levels at any circuit node as they change with frequency and time. It allows for obtaining accurate results even when simulating complex circuits where hierarchical blocks are reused. The CircuitLogix simulation engine is based on Berkeley SPICE, and contains a GUI to make circuit design easier and more efficient. The CircuitLogix

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...

SPICE engine is interactive, allowing, for example, the

frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...

of sources to be changed,

potentiometer A potentiometer is a three- terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat. The measuring instrum ...

s adjusted, and

thrown during simulation. The SPICE engine is fully integrated with the schematic capture and

waveform In electronics, acoustics, and related fields, the waveform of a signal is the shape of its Graph of a function, graph as a function of time, independent of its time and Magnitude (mathematics), magnitude Scale (ratio), scales and of any dis ...

tools; CircuitLogix passes schematic edits to the simulator automatically while running. Components such as

fuses Munitions, Fuse or FUSE may refer to: Devices * Fuse (electrical), a device used in electrical systems to protect against excessive current ** Fuse (automotive), a class of fuses for vehicles * Fuse (hydraulic), a device used in hydraulic systems ...

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

s and controlled switches are automatically updated in the schematic as the simulation runs. CircuitLogix simulates analog,

, and mixed analog-digital circuits. The simulator first divides the circuit into analog and digital portions. The analog circuitry is simulated with the time-step driven SPICE engine, while the digital parts are simulated separately with an event-driven simulation engine. The CircuitLogix digital engine was developed directly in

.NET The .NET platform (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a free and open-source, managed code, managed computer software framework for Microsoft Windows, Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems. The project is mainly developed by Microsoft emplo ...

, faster than SPICE macros. Because the simulator automatically performs signal conversion, it is possible to connect any analog or digital part to any other. The system’s model library contains hybrid parts for analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion.

Mixed-mode simulation

CircuitLogix is a mixed-mode

schematic editor A schematic, or schematic diagram, is a designed representation of the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic usually omits all details that are not relevant to the key information the sc ...

, and includes both analog and event-driven simulation capabilities: any simulation may contain components that are analog, event driven (digital or sampled-data), or a combination of both. An entire mixed signal analysis can be driven from one integrated schematic. All the digital models in CircuitLogix provide accurate specification of propagation time and rise/fall time delays. The event-driven

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...

used by CircuitLogix is general-purpose and supports non-digital types of data. For example, elements can use real or

integer An integer is the number zero (0), a positive natural number (1, 2, 3, ...), or the negation of a positive natural number (−1, −2, −3, ...). The negations or additive inverses of the positive natural numbers are referred to as negative in ...

values to simulate DSP functions or sampled data filters. Because the event-driven algorithm is faster than the standard SPICE matrix, simulation time is greatly reduced for circuits that use event-driven models in place of analog models. Mixed-mode simulation is handled on three levels by CircuitLogix: (a) with primitive digital elements that use timing models and a built-in 12-state digital logic simulator, (b) with subcircuit models that use the actual transistor

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

of the

integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

, and finally, (c) with In-line

Boolean logic In mathematics and mathematical logic, Boolean algebra is a branch of algebra. It differs from elementary algebra in two ways. First, the values of the variable (mathematics), variables are the truth values ''true'' and ''false'', usually denot ...

expressions. These two modeling techniques use SPICE to solve a problem while the third method, digital primitives, uses mixed-mode capability.

Component library

The component library includes: ; Digital primitives: Gates, DeMorgan symboled gates, buffers, inverters, flip-flops ;

Semiconductors A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping levels ...

: Semiconductor Resistors &

capacitor In electrical engineering, a capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. The capacitor was originally known as the condenser, a term st ...

diode A diode is a two-Terminal (electronics), terminal electronic component that conducts electric current primarily in One-way traffic, one direction (asymmetric electrical conductance, conductance). It has low (ideally zero) Electrical resistance ...

s, Schottky &

Zener diode A Zener diode is a type of diode designed to exploit the Zener effect to affect electric current to flow against the normal direction from anode to cathode, when the voltage across its terminals exceeds a certain characteristic threshold, the ''Z ...

Bridge rectifier A diode bridge is a bridge rectifier circuit of four diodes that is used in the process of converting alternating current (AC) from the input terminals to direct current (DC, i.e. fixed polarity) on the output terminals. Its function is to co ...

Varactor A varicap diode, varactor diode, variable capacitance diode, variable reactance diode or tuning diode is a type of diode designed to exploit the voltage-dependent capacitance of a reverse-biased p–n junction. Applications Varactors are used ...

Transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...

FET The field-effect transistor (FET) is a type of transistor that uses an electric field to control the current through a semiconductor. It comes in two types: junction FET (JFET) and metal-oxide-semiconductor FET (MOSFET). FETs have three termi ...

s: BJT,

IGBT An insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is a three-terminal power semiconductor device primarily forming an electronic switch. It was developed to combine high efficiency with fast switching. It consists of four alternating layers (NPNP) that ...

, UJT, PUT,

MESFET A MESFET (metal–semiconductor field-effect transistor) is a field-effect transistor semiconductor device similar to a JFET with a Schottky (metal–semiconductor) junction instead of a p–n junction for a gate. Construction MESFETs are con ...

MOSFET upright=1.3, Two power MOSFETs in amperes">A in the ''on'' state, dissipating up to about 100 watt">W and controlling a load of over 2000 W. A matchstick is pictured for scale. In electronics, the metal–oxide–semiconductor field- ...

Darlington transistor In electronics, a Darlington configuration (commonly called as a Darlington pair) is a circuit consisting of two bipolar transistors with the emitter of one transistor connected to the base of the other, such that the current amplified by the ...

;

Displays A display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form (the latter used for example in tactile electronic displays for blind people). When the input information that is supplied has an electrical signal ...

, indicators,

switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type o ...

es: LEDs, 7-Segment LEDs, Hex display, Hex key, Logic display, NC

push-button A push-button (also spelled pushbutton) or simply button is a simple switch mechanism to control some aspect of a machine or a process. Buttons are typically made out of hard material, usually plastic or metal. The surface is usually flat or sh ...

, NO push button, SPDT PB, Piezo buzzer, Pulser, Latch coil, Polar latch, Rocket, SCOPE, Stepper, Stoplight, Window ; Integrated Circuits :; Digital ICs: 1K RAM, 32x8 PROM, complete selection of 40xx, 41xx, 45xx, 47xx, 74xxx IC's :; Linear ICs:

Op amp An operational amplifier (often op amp or opamp) is a DC-coupled electronic voltage amplifier with a differential input, a (usually) single-ended output, and an extremely high gain. Its name comes from its original use of performing mathema ...

Comparator In electronics, a comparator is a device that compares two voltages or currents and outputs a digital signal indicating which is larger. It has two analog input terminals V_+ and V_- and one binary digital output V_\text. The output is ideally ...

s, Timers, Buffers, CDAs,

Modulator Signal modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform in electronics and telecommunication for the purpose of transmitting information. The process encodes information in form of the modulation or message ...

s, A/D converters & D/A converters, PLL, VCO ;

Relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switc ...

s: Control relay, SPST, DPDT, Individual contacts and coils (enable creation of any relay) ; Power supplies, Sources: Battery, Voltage Terminal,

Signal generator A signal generator is one of a class of Electronics, electronic devices that generates electrical signals with set properties of amplitude, frequency, and wave shape. These generated signals are used as a stimulus for electronic measurements, typ ...

, I Source, V Source, I->I Source, V->I Source, I->Switch, V->Switch, I->V Source, V->V Source ; Math devices: A wide variety of devices for manipulating quantities ; Miscellaneous Devices: Crystals,

Fuses Munitions, Fuse or FUSE may refer to: Devices * Fuse (electrical), a device used in electrical systems to protect against excessive current ** Fuse (automotive), a class of fuses for vehicles * Fuse (hydraulic), a device used in hydraulic systems ...

Transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

DC Motor A DC motor is an electrical motor that uses direct current (DC) to produce mechanical force. The most common types rely on magnetic forces produced by currents in the coils. Nearly all types of DC motors have some internal mechanism, either el ...

, F-V & V-F converters ;

Transmission line In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmis ...

s: Lossless, Lossy, and Uniform Distributed RC ;

Vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...

s: 12AU7, 12AX7, 5879, 6L6GC, 6SN7, 7199P, 7199T ; Instruments:

Oscilloscope An oscilloscope (formerly known as an oscillograph, informally scope or O-scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying voltages of one or more signals as a function of time. Their main purpose is capturing i ...

, Digital

Multimeter A multimeter (also known as a multi-tester, volt-ohm-milliammeter, volt-ohmmeter or VOM, avometer or ampere-volt-ohmmeter) is a measuring instrument that can measure multiple electrical properties. A typical multimeter can measure voltage, elec ...

, Bode plotter, Curve tracer, Data Sequencer, Signal generator,

Logic analyzer A logic analyzer is an electronic instrument that captures and displays multiple logic signals from a digital system or digital circuit. A logic analyzer may convert the capture into timing diagrams, protocol decodes, state machine traces, op ...

, Logic probe, Logic Pulser ; Simulation Controls: Initial Condition and Nodeset devices ; Miscellaneous:

Optoisolator An opto-isolator (also called an optocoupler, photocoupler, or optical isolator) is an electronic component that transfers electrical Signal, signals between two isolated circuits by using light. Opto-isolators prevent high voltages from affecti ...

Photodiode A photodiode is a semiconductor diode sensitive to photon radiation, such as visible light, infrared or ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and gamma rays. It produces an electrical current when it absorbs photons. This can be used for detection and me ...

Voltage regulator A voltage regulator is a system designed to automatically maintain a constant voltage. It may use a simple feed-forward design or may include negative feedback. It may use an electromechanical mechanism or electronic components. Depending on the ...

s, References, SCRs, Triacs

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.CircuitLogix.com Electronic design automation software Simulation programming languages Electronic circuit simulators

Overview

Mixed-mode simulation

Component library

See also

References

External links