Introduction to SPICE, the General-Purpose Electrical Circuit Simulator

Abstract: SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) is a general purpose analog circuit simulator, with multiple applications in the field of Electrical Engineering. Originally developed in academia in the 1970s as a specific simulation program, today SPICE has become a general term describing an entire class of circuit simulators, ranging from open-source, to proprietary "in-house," to commercially-available vendor software. The application space is wide-ranging as well, with SPICE used in transistor-based circuit design with foundry-specific CMOS FET models, in time-domain signal integrity simulations with sophisticated transmission line models and their associated algorithms, in power distribution analysis, analog filter design, the calculation of power line transients in the electrical power industry, and biomedical applications, among countless others.

This presentation introduces SPICE in the context of a simple passive RLC network, showing how the program can effectively predict the time response, even as the number of passive elements grows to a quantity beyond which algebraic calculation of the circuit response is impractical. Demonstration of general SPICE input syntax will be covered, to show how the circuit model can be quickly described based on linear lumped-element circuit theory, familiar to all electrical engineers. As time permits, additional extensions to distributed-element circuit theory and other applications will be covered.

Biography: Paul E. Dahlen is a signal integrity engineer at IBM Corp. in Rochester, MN, where he currently holds the position of Senior Technical Staff Member. His work is focused on signal integrity simulation, system electrical analysis, and design of component-level and system-level electronic packaging for computer systems. Prior to IBM, he worked for Rosemount, Inc. in Burnsville, MN. While at IBM, he has accumulated 60 U.S. Patents and has achieved the IBM 19th Plateau Invention Achievement Award.

He received the BSEE and BSEP degrees from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, and the MSEE and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering degrees from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

He is a Senior Member of IEEE, a member of the engineering honor societies Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi, and a current board member and past Chair of the IEEE Southern Minnesota Section. He is registered in Minnesota as a professional engineer (P.E.) in electrical engineering, and an Adjunct Faculty member in Engineering at Rochester Community and Technical College.