Feature: Simulation
• Basic • Basic Plus. The Industrial version includes all of TINA’s features and is
the most expensive. The Educational version is slightly cheaper, since it doesn’t
include features like transient noise and stress analyses, and Verilog lines are limited. The Classic version is similar to the Educational version,
but some features, such as the S-parameter analysis, the model maker and network analysis are missing. Te Basic and Basic Plus versions are similar to the Classic
one, but with a limited number of nodes and without Verilog simulation. Te Academic package consists of the Student and Educational
versions, which are similar but for the difference of the Student version having its number of pads and nodes limited to 100. TINA supports two real multifunction PC instruments
produced by DesignSoſt called TINALab II and LabXplorer. With the help of these, students can interface real hardware to the TINA simulation package and observe the results on an oscilloscope, and use signal analysers, multimeters and function generators in real time. Te function generator makes sine, square, ramp, triangle and arbitrary waveforms from DC to 50MHz, with logarithmic and linear sweeps. Arbitrary waveforms can be programmed using TINA’s easy-to-use built-in interpreter language. Both TINALab, LabXplorer and many other instruments can be interfaced with TINA using LabVIEW from National Instruments. An online version of TINA, called the TINACloud, is also
available from DesignSoſt; it enables TINA soſtware to run in a browser without any installation, from anywhere in the world. TINACloud is useful in distance education as it includes online tools for testing students’ knowledge and monitoring their progress. TINACloud is included free of charge for one year in all TINA distributions.
An example TINA circuit A single-stage common-emitter transistor amplifier will be our example here. Figure 1 shows the amplifier circuit diagram, drawn using TINA’s schematic editor. A BC107A-type NPN transistor is used in this design. Te output of the amplifier is designated as Out:1 and can be connected to various instruments to measure or observe the signal. Aſter starting the simulation, the output voltage is displayed
(Figure 2) on a virtual multimeter, shown to be 152.64mV. Te output waveform on the virtual oscilloscope is shown in
Figure 3. Te frequency response of the amplifier is shown in Figure 4, using a virtual signal analyser instrument. Te voltage at any node of the circuit can be displayed by clicking on that node. For example, as shown in Figure 5, the DC voltage at the base of the transistor is displayed as 641.6mV. It is also possible to display the AC and DC voltages and
currents at all parts of the circuit in the form of a table. Figure 6 shows the circuit with the nodes labelled automatically. Te DC voltages and currents are shown in Figure 7.
Figure 12: Design in 3D (side view)
Figure 13: Design in 3D (top view) Te transient response of an amplifier circuit is important, since it
can reveal any non-linearities in the output response. Figure 8 shows the transient analysis of the circuit where the output is 180º out of phase with the input, and there are no non-linearities. Te Fourier spectrum of an amplifier shows the frequency elements in its output response and is useful to determine if there are any harmonics present. Te Fourier spectrum for the amplifier circuit used in this example is shown in Figure 9. As can be seen from this figure, the fundamental frequency 1kHz is the frequency of the input waveform. TINA also offers the option to display the circuit schematic in 3D,
as shown in Figure 10.
PCB design Aſter the circuit has been designed and the user is satisfied with the simulation results, the next stage is usually to build the physical
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