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I'm new at the ngspice simulator and I don't understand this line of a Netlist that I found

Vn 1 n1 dc 0V ac 1mV trrandom(1 5us 0s 125m 0m)

if the random signal is only used in the transient simulation why did they keep the ac signal with an amplitude of 1mV ?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't understand the (Independent Sources for Voltage) and (dependent Sources for Voltage) part of your question. I think it has nothing to do with dependency. Hopefully, my answer clarifies. \$\endgroup\$
    – Huisman
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 8:57

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It's just in the manual :

4.1.8 Randomvoltagesource
The TRRANDOM option yields statistically distributed voltage values, derived from the ngspice random number generator. These values may be used in the transient simulation directly within a circuit, e.g. for generating a specific noise voltage, but especially they may be used in the control of behavioral sources […] to simulate the circuit dependence on statistically varying device parameters. A Monte-Carlo simulation may thus be handled in a single simulation run.

You should read the line as follows:

Vn 1 n1 dc 0V ac 1mV trrandom(1 5us 0s 125m 0m) 
--
name of voltage source

Vn 1 n1 dc 0V ac 1mV trrandom(1 5us 0s 125m 0m) 
   ----
nodes the voltage source is connected to

Vn 1 n1 dc 0V ac 1mV trrandom(1 5us 0s 125m 0m) 
        -----
type and value of voltage source for transient analysis

Vn 1 n1 dc 0V ac 1mV trrandom(1 5us 0s 125m 0m) 
              ------
AC amplitude for ac analysis

Vn 1 n1 dc 0V ac 1mV trrandom(1 5us 0s 125m 0m) 
        +++++        --------------------------
adds statistically distributed voltage values to the DC of 0V (the +++ part)

According the specification of TRRANDOM(TYPE TS <TD <PARAM1 <PARAM2>>>) in your example

  • the noise is uniformly distributed
  • the duration of an individual voltage value is 5 us
  • time delay parameter is not used
  • the noise has an amplitude of 125mV
  • the noise has an offset of 0mV
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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you for your clarifications it helped me a lot, just to make sure I understood well, does it means that we generate an ac sinusoïdal signal (with an amplitude of 1mV) to which we will superimpose a random signal (a uniformly distributed noise with an amplitude of 125mV ? this kind of source is allowed only for transient or ac simulations .noise simulation doesn't work with it ? \$\endgroup\$
    – assia_sia
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 13:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ @asssi transient analysis =/= AC analysis. trrandom only applies to transient analysis. If you want a sinusoidal signal, you should do something like Vn 1 n1 SINE 0mV 1mV 1kHz trrandom(1 5us 0s 125m 0m) \$\endgroup\$
    – Huisman
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 14:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ As you noticed I left out the ac 1mV part, because it does not affect transient analysis \$\endgroup\$
    – Huisman
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 14:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ @asssi I'm not completely sure how the TS and TD work. You'd better make a noise source (like Vn 2 1 dc 0V trrandom(1 5us 0s 125m 0m)) and check whether it satisfies and then put a SINE voltage source (like Vn 1 0 sine 0mV 1mV 1kHz) in series. \$\endgroup\$
    – Huisman
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 14:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ I got it thank you it is not my purpose to have a sinusoidal signal to which we superimpose a random signal, now that I unserstood what you said and I have checked the rest of the netlist which contains two types of simulations .tran 0.1m 5m 0m 1u .ac dec 1000 1 10Meg \$\endgroup\$
    – assia_sia
    Commented May 2, 2020 at 23:00

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