HSPICE TUTORIAL

Department of Electrical Engineering

The University of Texas at Dallas

Updated on Aug 25th 2007

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Contents

Introduction

How to Setup

How to Run Hspice

How to Run AvanWaves

Example 1

Example 2

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

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Introduction

This tutorial introduces the Hspice and AvanWaves to perform some basic circuit simulations.

• Hspice

Circuit Simulator

• AvanWaves

High Resolution Waveform Viewer

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How to Setup

Slides(#4 ~ 5) show how to setup environment for starting Hspice and AvanWaves.

• First of all, log on to the UNIX workstation using your user ID and Password.

• After logging on, open a Console Window and create a directory called “project” in your home directory. The project directory is to store process parameters and Hspice source files.

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How to Setup

• Launch a web browser and visit the website http://www.utdallas.edu/~hoilee/course-fall07/ee6378-001.html to download a TSMC 0.35um technology model file for Hspice simulation.

Click the Model Download and save the “cmos.txt”

file in your “project” directory.

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How to Run Hspice

Next, let us learn how to run Hspice

• Open the Console Window and type the following command.

“You have to do this every time you want to start Hspice or AvanWaves”.

• Type the following command in your UNIX prompt to run Hspice with source file “example1.sp”.

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How to Run Hspice

• Hspice will read “example1.sp” and run the simulation. A log file “example1.lis” will be generated after the simulation.

• “hspice job concluded” will be shown if the simulation is done properly.

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How to Run Hspice

• If you see error message something like the following, you should open the generated “.lis” file in order to check what is an error.

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How to Run AvanWaves

AvanWaves provides a convenient graphical interface to display, analyze, and print results of Hspice simulations.

• Type “awaves &” in a command prompt. A new window will be shown if your environment is set correctly.

AvanWavesWindow

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How to Run AvanWaves

• Click “Design” and “Open”. An Open Design window will be shown.

• Select “example1.sp” and click “OK” in Open Design window.

Open Design Window

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How to Run AvanWaves

• After that, the Results Browser window will be shown.

• Select “DC: example1” and “Current 1”. Double click “i1(m1)” to open waveform.

Results Browser Window

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How to Run AvanWaves

• The following figure shows the AvanWaves result.

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Example 1

The following figures show an example regarding to NMOS Transistor DC Operation. Left one shows a schematic, and right one is a text file associated with the schematic.

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Example 1

To create “.sp” file, open a UNIX Console Window and type “nedit” or “pico” in your command prompt. Both of them are well-known text editors in UNIX environment.

After opening a text editor, type the previous example source code and save as “example1.sp”.

Next, run Hspice.

If the simulation is successful, run AvanWaves and check the result waveform.

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Example 1

The following provides a brief explanation about the “example1.sp” source code:

• The first line of the source file can be read by Hspice as a comment. However, AvanWaves reads the first line as the title of the simulation.

• There are 3 elements in the circuit: “m1”, “vgs”, and “vds”. Note that Hspice syntax is NOT case sensitive;

e.g. vgs=vGS=Vgs

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Example 1

• You should give each node a name. you can use any number for node name assignment or give some meaningful names for the important circuit nodes such as “vin” and “vout”.

• The node with name “0” is used as global ground terminal.

• Please remember adding an empty line after “.end” in the source file, otherwise Hspice will run abnormally.

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Example 1

There is some useful information in the “.lis” file.

• Open the “example1.lis” file and check DC Operating Point and MOS Operation Information.

DC Operating Point MOS Operation Information

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Example 2

The following figures show an example of a source code and schematic for Differential Amplifier with Resistive Loads.

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Example 2

The simulation result of Differential Amplifier with Resistive Loads.

Result from .DC Analysis

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Examples 2

Check DC operating point, transfer characteristics, and MOS operation information, using the “example2.lis” file.

DC Operating Point

MOS Operation InformationTransfer Characteristics

Result from .TF Analysis

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Appendix 1: What is a Source File?

An ASCII text file called source file is needed to use with Hspice. Usually the source file has extension “.sp”. However there is no limitation in the file extension.

Normally the source file contains circuit description, simulation options, and simulation control. Please refer to “Hspice Manual” for the use of Hspice syntax in the source file. You could find some example source files in this tutorial latter.

ASCII mode must be used to upload the source files from PC to your UNIX account, otherwise Hspice cannot read the source files correctly.

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Appendix 2

Hspice Manual - A Quick Start

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Hspice Feature

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Type of Analysis

DC Analysis

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Type of Analysis

AC Small Signal Analysis (1)

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Type of Analysis

AC Small Signal Analysis (2)

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Type of Analysis

Transient Analysis

Analysis at Differential Temperatures

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Convergence

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Input Format

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Circuit Description

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Syntax of Hspice

This section provides a quick start of using Hspice, and syntax is simplified for beginner. Advanced and Detailed informationshould be referred to “Hspice Manual”.

Passive and Active Element

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Syntax of Hspice

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Syntax of Hspice

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Syntax of Hspice

Independent Source Elements

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Syntax of Hspice

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Syntax of Hspice

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Syntax of Hspice

Dependent Source Elements

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Syntax of Hspice

Analysis

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Syntax of Hspice