MDSPICE: Mixed-Domain SPICE Simulator
  
     
 
About MDSPICE
MDSPICE is a mixed frequency and time domain spice simulator for predicting the time-domain response of high-speed networks, high-frequency circuits, and nonlinear devices directly using s-parameters.
MDSPICE's Features
1. MS-Windows based, menu-driven integrated GUI and post-processor:
   Everything is in the Windows environment. The commands are organized as menu items like those in  standard Windows application programs. It is easy to use and it does not require you to remember all different commands.
2. Compatible with standard SPICE net-lists and able to accept s-, y- and z-parameter files as elements.
    MDSPICE uses standard SPICE netlists. You do not need to change the format and you can transfer SPICE files from other sources directly to MDSPICE. MDSPICE's most significant feature  is that it can accept s-, y- or z-parameter files as elements.
3. Accurate, efficient and powerful frequency-domain simulation of nonlinear circuits for harmonic analysis.
    MDSPICE contains a powerful frequency-domain simulation engine. It can perform a frequency-domain analysis on a SPICE netlist containing linear elements, such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, mutual inductors and s-parameter module. As far as frequency domain simulation is concerned, MDSPICE is like a typical microwave network simulator. It can accept any topology with linear or nonlinear elements.
4. Wide-band SPICE model extraction.
    MDSPICE 2.0 allows accurate extraction of SPICE model for coupled transmission lines and interconnects. The results will be in standard SPICE netlists and can be imported into other SPICE simulator for wide-band SPICE simulation.
5. Accurate, efficient and powerful time domain simulation for transient analysis.
     Like traditional SPICE simulators, MDSPICE can perform a time-domain simulation with specified excitation waveforms. However, MDSPICE does it in a more efficient and elegant way. Traditional SPICE simulators can only handle SPICE netlist containing regular lumped elements such as resistors, capacitors and inductors. They cannot handle s-parameter files completely, accurately and/or efficiently. Whenever a s-parameter frequency response is encountered, the user is required to extract the RLC netlist from the s-parameter file. The extraction process is an optimization process. It is to match the frequency response of the RLC netlist to that of the s-parameter file. We cannot guarantee the extraction has a solution. Even we can get a solution on it, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the solution. Normally, the solution is only accurate at low frequency. With MDSPICE, you no longer need the problematic RLC extraction from s-parameter files. MDSPICE also does not have the frequency limitation. You can perform an efficient transient analysis directly on the s-parameter frequency response without loss of accuracy.


Good agreement between the original s-parameters and the SPICE model extracted 
on MDSPICE 2.0 in the specified frequency range (0-3 GHz) for a long transmission line.


Time-domain simulation of clock signal going through a lossy transmission line.


Eye pattern display for a long series of random clock signals with jitters.
      For microwave circuits or high-speed digital circuits, the s-parameter frequency response is an accurate and complete description of circuit performance. RLC netlists is normally an approximation valid over limited frequency range. MDSPICE opens a door for high-accuracy transient analysis of high-frequency and high-speed circuits.
     Besides, MDSPICE will also improve the efficiency of transient analysis significantly over traditional SPICE simulators. For a typical high-frequency circuit, the number of elements can be a huge numbers. However, it normally has just a few input and output ports only. A traditional SPICE simulator performs the time marching process based upon the time response of each element. It has to go through each element one by one for each time step it runs. Every time step, the simulator has to solve a linear equation for the unknown time-domain voltage and current at each port of each element. Instead, MDSPICE does not care about the internal topology and complexity. It can perform the time marching process on the resulting s-parameter frequency response represented as an N-by-N matrix, where N is the number of ports which is normally a small number. Much simulation time can be saved due to the fact that the simulation domain of MDSPICE is much smaller than that of traditional SPICE simulators for the same circuit.

Download MDSPICE 3.0