Enhance PCB Design Efficiency with OrCAD PSpice Simulation

Simulation is an essential link in the process of PCB design. PSpice is a simulator provided by OrCAD PCB design software. Coupled with work flow of OrCAD Capture, PSpice provides a fast trailer prior to board design in order to increase PCB manufacturing efficiency and ensure the final performance of PCBs. Cooperation between OrCAD Capture and PSpice is displayed in Figure 1 below.

BTW, four elements have to be known prior to design simulation, which are listed in the following figure.

Analysis types PSpice can be applied to perform include DC analysis, AC analysis, transient analysis and advanced analysis. Each type of analysis contains their own analysis types that are shown in the following table.

DC Analysis	DC sweep analysis	To sweep a source, a global parameter, a model parameter or the temperature via a range of values
	Bias point analysis	To implement any analysis
	DC sensitivity analysis	To calculate and report the sensitivity of one node voltage to each device parameter
AC Analysis	AC sweep analysis	To calculate small-signal response
	Noise analysis	To calculate and report device noise and total output and equivalent input noise
Transient Analysis	Parametric analysis	To perform multiple iterations of a specified standard analysis
	Temperature analysis	To return standard analyses set in the Simulation Settings dialog box at different temperatures
	Monte Carlo analysis	To calculate the circuit response to changes in part values
Advanced Analysis	Worse case analysis	To find the worst probable output of a circuit or system

After a brief introduction of PSpice, next come a series of steps on how to implement simulations based on it.

Create a simulation profile

Prior to PSpice simulation starting, you have to create a simulation profile in which simulation settings for an analysis type are saved so that you can reuse them conveniently. Editing and modifications can be made to simulation profiles in accordance with your design requirement.

Run PSpice

Choose Run from the PSpice menu in OrCAD Capture.

Then, PSpice Netlist Generation progress box appears indicating each link of the whole process. When the simulation is completed, you can be aware about that from the output window.

View output waveforms

Output waveforms can be checked after simulating a design using PSpice, which allows you to examine circuit performance and ensure the validity of your design. Viewing output waves can be applied to evaluate your circuit performance through different analyses.

Here markers need be placed in your circuit design in OrCAD Capture to indicate the points where you want to see simulation waveforms displayed in PSpice. In order to add markers, you can choose them from the PSpice menu in Capture.

Note: As the simulation continues, PSpice saves the simulation results in two files, the Waveform data file and the PSpice output file. The former includes simulation results that can be displayed graphically while the latter may or may not contain any information. To configure the output file, you can use the Options tab in the Simulations Settings dialog box, as is shown in the following figure.

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