Manuals >User's Guide >Simulating
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Conventions for Connecting Nodes

Be aware of the convention used for node connections when sourcing voltage and current.

    • When you specify an Input Mode of V, the +Node and -Node fields are available in the Input table. In this case, the +Node is considered to be the positive side of the voltage source and the -Node is the negative side.
    • When you specify an Input Mode of I, the To Node and From Node fields are available in the Input table. Current flows from the From Node to the To Node.

When IC-CAP builds the simulation input deck, the program creates the source name by concatenating the mode character, the first three characters of the +Node (or To Node) and the first three characters of the -Node (or From Node). These source names are used in the simulation input deck to specify the sweeps and constants. Specified outputs may also reference these names.

Source names are limited to 8-characters. This limit can cause problems in a simulation if, for example, two inputs are specified as follows:

Mode = V
  
 Mode = V
+Node = BASE
 and
 +Node = BASE
-Node = EMITTER
 
 -Node = EMITTER2

From this input, IC-CAP creates the same source names: VBASEMI and VBASEMI. You can avoid this potential conflict with source names by choosing node names in circuit descriptions carefully. When choosing node names with more than three characters, make sure that the first three characters are unique with respect to the first three characters of any other node names.

Note


When you enter an invalid node name, such as K in any of the input and output node fields and try to simulate, the program sends an error message: 

ERROR: Invalid Input node name K used
ERROR: Unable to simulate.
Check the Input and Output specifications.

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