What are the best books on the SPICE simulator?

QSPICE
1

Hello,

Jose Soares Augusto suggests the following three classifications. However, there is always a way to follow which is the most optimal one.

Would you be so kind as to recommend me which of these books (or others not present here) you consider the best to start with?

Thanks in advance!

  1. Circuit simulation algorithmic-numerical level:
    from several good options (I own and already read quite a lot of books in this area), my suggestion goes clearly to Vlach & Singhal’s Computer Methods for Circuit Analysis and Design (Van Nostrand Reinhold Electrical/Computer Science and Engineering Series): Singhal, Kishore, Vlach, Jiri: 9780442011949: Amazon.com: Books. The 1st edition is as good as this 2nd edition. Other options are the classical “simulation Kama-Sutra” from Chua & Lin’s Computer-Aided Analysis of Electronic Circuits: Algorithms and Computational Techniques (Prentice-Hall series in electrical and computer engineering): Chua, Leon O.: 9780131654150: Amazon.com: Books, Ogrodzki’s [(Circuit Simulation Methods and Algorithms )] [Author: Jan Ogrodzki] [Sep-1994]: Amazon.com: Books and the (hard to find) Electronic Circuit and System Simulation Methods: Pillage, Lawrence T., Rohrer, Ronald A., Visweswariah, Chandramouli: 9780070501690: Amazon.com: Books which is more readable than the above (although Vlach & Singhal is very readable and well written).

  2. Mixed algorithmic and user-directed level:
    I suggest The SPICE Book: Vladimirescu, Andrei: 9780471609261: Amazon.com: Books. Vladimirescu has been involved in the original Spice development team and has written a quite good book. Another very good intermediate Spice book is Kundert’s The Designer’s Guide to Spice and Spectre® (The Designer’s Guide Book Series): Kundert, Ken: 9780792395713: Amazon.com: Books. Kundert has been involved in the development of more modern circuit simulators, and provides a very good read.

  3. Front-end user/designer level:
    this is the type of books with more interest for most Spice users, explaining device models, simulation options and varieties, and other user-devoted issues, and indeed there are many tens of books available. I recommend Tuinenga’s book SPICE: A Guide to Circuit Simulation and Analysis Using PSpice (3rd Edition): Tuinenga, Paul W.: 9780131587755: Amazon.com: Books (or earlier editions) and Rashid’s SPICE for Circuits and Electronics Using PSPICE (2nd Edition): Rashid, Muhammad H.: 9780131246522: Amazon.com: Books (or the 1st edition; this guy has written many Spice-based books, some devoted to power electronic circuits.)

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I’ve always liked the 2nd edition of Semiconductor Device Modeling with SPICE by Paolo Antognetti and Giuseppe Massobrio.

Many books on SPICE are merely advertisements for some specific commercial edition of SPICE and are too light on real technical content to be more than an circuitous route to understanding SPICE. Semiconductor Device Modeling with SPICE was the Rosetta Stone for me.

–Mike

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My 2 cents: Chua and Lin can’t be beat.

Stay away from Ogrodzki as it is very, very, difficult to read and the OPTIMA diskette will give you headaches. The content is in the other recommended books, so you won’t miss anything.

Also stay away from Kundert’s book. It is ridiculous expensive, is (obviously :slight_smile: biased towards Spectre, lacks depth, and is poorly edited. The first example I tried didn’t match the predicted results as SPICE has improved over the decades.

-marcel

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