SLiCAP release notes

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SLiCAP Version 4.0 release notes

  1. The netlist syntax and the matrix stamps of F, H, and HZ element models has been made SPICE-compatible. All SLiCAP symbol libraries, model libraries, and the netlist parser have been updated accordingly and are NO LONGER compatible with earlier versions.

  2. Element branch current names have all been set to I_<refdes>, where refdes is the reference designator of the element. This is NOT compatible with previous versions.

  3. Improved output of noise and dcvar analysis for balanced circuits with convtype='dd' or convtype='cc'. By default, paired noise or dcvar sources are renamed to common-mode or differential-mode sources.

  4. Added checyshev1Poly() returns a normalized Chebyshev type 1 polynomial.

  5. Added filterFunc() for creating unity-gain low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, band-reject, and all-pass transfer functions, based on normalized Butterworth, Bessel, and Chebyshev type-1 (pass-band ripple) polynomials.

  6. Added DIN_A(), which returns a DIN_A weighting funcion.

  7. The code has strongly been simplified: the allResults object is replaced with a modified instruction object.

  8. The function ini.dump() has been modified. It displays settings per section. Settings for a specific section are displayed after giving the section name as argument.

    >>> import SLiCAP as sl
>>> sl.ini.dump("version")

VERSION
-------
ini.install_version        = 4.0
ini.latest_version         = 4.0

  9. The execution of the reduce_circuit and the reduce_matrix options have been improved. reduce_matrix now also works for matrices that do not include Laplace expressions and it only performs multiplication and addition on symbolic expressions.

  10. listPZ displays frequencies in rad/s if ini.hz=False

  11. Canceling of poles and zeros in doPZ() also works for symbolic pole-zero analysis

  12. RST and LaTeX snippets for tables are improved

  13. RST snippet for equations now supports multiline expressions

  14. The documentation has been updated. It automatically generates rst and LaTeX snippets by executing manual.py when running make html.

  15. Examples (Python scripts and Jupyter Notebooks) have been added to the SLiCAP Examples reporitory

  16. SLiCAP 4.0 has an improved interface with NGspice:

    1. Added a KiCAD SPICE symbol library with NGspice symbols for all standard NGspice devices (no Xspice devices yet)

    2. A simple python instruction for the following analysis types including (non-nested) parameter stepping:

      1. .OP

      2. .DC

      3. .AC

      4. .NOISE

      5. .TRAN

      These NGspice analyses return a dictionary with traces that can be plotted with the SLiCAP plot() function, or added to an existing plot using addTraces().

      The results of an operating point information (without parameter stepping) can be displayed on the KiCAD schematic and its svg and pdf image files.

SLiCAP Version 3.5 release notes

  1. SLiCAP version 3.5 has an improved interface to LaTeX and Sphinx:

SLiCAP Version 3.4 release notes

  1. SLiCAP 3.4 is compatible with KiCad 9

SLiCAP Version 3.3 release notes

  1. SLiCAP Version 3.3 is prepared for PyPi pip install:

    • Examples are no longer part of the package, they can be pulled of downloaded from github.

    • Libraries are no longer placed in the ~/SLiCAP/ folder. Library locations are found in ~/SLiCAP.ini under the section [installpaths]. Settings for symbol library locations in schematic editors (KiCAD, LTspice, etc.) need to be adjusted accordingly.

SLiCAP Version 3.2 release notes

  1. SLiCAP Version 3.2 is compatible with previous versions. The use of the instruction object for creating instructions, however, is deprecated and no longer described in this documentation.

  2. Version 3.2.4 has a KiCAD library symbol, SLiCAP CMOS18 sub circuits, and extra math functions for the design of a feedback amplifiers’ MOS input stage based on its noise performance.

  3. From version 3.2.3 the analysis time for large circuits has been considerably reduced. By default, two methods will be applied:

    1. Reduction of the circuit through elimination of all independent voltage sources that are not used as signal source or current detector.

      This circuit reduction can be switched off by setting

      reduce_circuit = False

      in the [math] section of the SLiCAP.ini file in the project directory

    2. Reduction of the size of the MNA matrix before calculation of the determinant, for matrices with Laplace expressions.

      This matrix reduction can be switched off by setting

      reduce_matrix = False

      in the [math] section of the SLiCAP.ini file in the project directory

  4. KiCAD is the preferred schematic capture program for SLiCAP version 3.2. From version 3.2.3 Inkscape is no longer needed for creating image-size svg and pdf files of KiCAD schematics. SLiCAP uses dedicated Python scrips for this purpose.

  5. The function ENG(<number>, scaleFactors=False) has been added to write numbers in enginering notation. It is used in the following functions:

    • elementData2html

    • params2html

    • expr2html

    • eqn2html

    • pz2html

    • specs2html

    If ini.scalefactors=True, scale factors from \(y=10^{-24}\cdots P=10^{15}\) are used. If ini.scalefactors=False and ini.eng_notation=True, engineering notation will be used (powers of 10 are an integer multiple of 3).

    Application of this function is defined in the [display] section of the SLiCAP.ini file in the project folder. Default setting are:

    scalefactors = False
eng_notation = True

  6. The SLiCAP.ini files in the ~/SliCAP/ folder and in the project folder are automatically updated in case in which they are corrupted or incomplete.

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