In the following, you will learn about two simulation tools. With these tools, you can reconstruct circuits and display their voltages and currents. This is particularly important for understanding circuits with operational amplifiers and transistors.
The former tools should allow simple visualization. The latter tools are usually a bit more difficult to handle, but allow more complex circuits and more detailed measurements. For high-quality simulation, you will use the free program TINA TI in the following. Illustration of concepts is made possible by Falstad's online simulation.
TINA is a SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) program from Texas Instruments. With this program, you can simulate electronic circuits and display the time sequences. This is very useful for learning and testing, but can also simulate more realistic setups.
The free version of the program is already very comprehensive. You can find it as follows (recommended is link 1!):
An English manual can be found at here in the wiki.
A German manual is only available for the full version.
Please install TINA TI.
Here are some tips:
Hinz&Kunz
, HHN
).European (DIN)
at „Select schematic symbol set you to want to use“.
The following introduction is based on videos in German. For the English introduction please refer to the first lecture available in ILIAS.
Alternatively, a nice introduction is also available on yoututbe from Professor Fiore.
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
Solution:Battery voltage 2.97V, battery current for variant 1: 74.07mA, battery current for variant 2: 67.76mA
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
You can find the template file under Tipps für TINA TI
- You can find exercises for this video in the following chapter
<Strg>+<R>
: Right-rotate a selected component.<Strg>+<L>
: Left-rotate a selected component.<Strg>+<Space>
: Switch to connection mode (wire).<Strg>+<C>
, <Strg>+<V>
: Copy, Paste.<Strg>+<Z>
, <Strg>+<Y>
: Undo, Redo.
In addition to TINA TI, another simulation tool is used in this course: The Online Circuit Simulator.
This tool can help to better understand the currents and voltages in different circuits. The program displays the current flow and the applied voltage in animated form. Under „Circuits“ and „Operational amplifiers (OPVs)“ you will find various circuits that are useful for this course.
There is an English Manual available from the University of Memphis. The Source Code of the simulator can be found on GitHub.
Familiarize yourself with the Online Circuit Simulator from Falstad
Edit
» Center Circuit
Circuits
» Basics
» Thévenin Theorem
Combine
. The curves should now be directly on top of each otherIn addition to the tools explained so far, there are other simulation tools - which we do not use in the courses. Some of them are briefly summarized here with their limitations.
Name | Focus | Limits | Commercial Product |
---|---|---|---|
Tina TI | Simulation of analog circuits (e.g. amplifier circuits) | function limited in the commercial product also the simulation of mixed digital-analog circuits is possible | Designsoft Tina |
MPLab Mindi | Simulation of transient transitions (z.B. DCDC-converter) | Number of nodes < 150 (approx.) | SIMETRIX / SIMPLIS |
LTSpice | broadly based Simulation | flat, long learning curve (unusual key mapping) | - |
For self-study, I recommend the following literature.
Title | Author | Short description |
---|---|---|
Operationsverstärker | J. Federau | German textbook with illustrative approaches. Accessible via university network or VPN. |
OP Amp Applications Handbook | very nice and detailed textbook of the manufacturer Analog Devices, „Freeware“, online available. | |
Handbook of Operational Amplifiers Application | A similar nice handbook is available from the competitor Texas Instruments | |
Electronic Circuits | U. Tietze, Chr. Schenk, E. Gamm | very detailed reference book. Accessible via university network or VPN. Additionally there is a collection of exercises |