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| .OPTIONS [ opt1 [=val1]] ... |
This statement allows the setting of various options specific to the simulator.
| opt1 | Option name. Must be one specified in list below. |
| val1 | Option value. Note, boolean options do not have a value. They are assigned "true" if the name is present and "false" if not. |
| Option name | Default value | Description | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABSTOL | 1p | Units = A The absolute current error tolerance. It is sometimes desirable to increase this for circuits that carry large currents (>1A) to speed the solution and aid convergence. | ||||||||
| ACCT | false | Full simulation timing statistics are generated if this is enabled. | ||||||||
| ALLACI | false | Instructs simulator to save all device currents in an AC analysis. Usually, only currents for simple devices are evaluated and stored. Equivalent to ".KEEP /allaci", but unlike .KEEP, .OPTION values can be defined on the Run command line. | ||||||||
| ANYVERSION | false | If true, BSIM3 and BSIM4 models will be unconditionally accepted even if an invalid version parameter is supplied. | ||||||||
| BINDIAG | false | If enabled, a report about selection of binned models will be output to the list file. See Model Binning. | ||||||||
| BINONTOTALWIDTH | false | For backward compatibility affecting BSIM4 models. Multi-fingered BSIM4 devices are binned according to width per finger. SIMetrix versions 5.3 and earlier binned according to total width. Set this option for version 5.3 behaviour. | ||||||||
| CHGTOL | 1e-14 | Units = Coulombs The absolute charge tolerance. | ||||||||
| CONV | 0 | Set to 2 to enable advanced iteration algorithm. The advanced iteration algorithm uses a modified iteration equation that reduces the error inherent in the iteration sequence. This improves convergence for some types of circuit, but sometimes incurs a small performance penalty | ||||||||
| CSHUNT | 0 | Units = Farads. Capacitance placed at all top level nodes to ground. If CSHUNTSUB specified, capacitance is placed at all nodes in the circuit. No capacitance is placed to nodes that already have a capacitor connected to ground. By placing a small capacitance at every node, some transient analysis convergence problems can be solved. A very small value such as 100fF can often be effective | ||||||||
| CSHUNTSUB | false | Boolean. If specified CSHUNT places capacitance to all nodes, not just those at the top level. This should be used with care if used in circuits with subcircuit models obtained from third-party vendors. Some have very high impedance internal nodes and their behaviour can be adversely affected by even very small additional capacitance. | ||||||||
| DCOPSEQUENCE | gmin| source| pta | Operating point strategy sequence order. See Controlling DC Method Sequence for details | ||||||||
| DEFAD | 0 |
Unit = m2
Default value for MOSFET AD device parameter. Applies to levels 1-3 and level 49/53. Does not apply to level 8 or NXP MOS9 devices |
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| DEFAS | 0 |
Unit = m2
As DEFAD but for AS parameter |
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| DEFL | 100$\mu$ | Unit = metres As DEFAD but for L parameter | ||||||||
| DEFNRD | 0 | As DEFAD but for NRD parameter | ||||||||
| DEFNRS | 0 | As DEFAD but for NRS parameter | ||||||||
| DEFPD | 0 | Unit = metres As DEFAD but for PD parameter | ||||||||
| DEFPS | 0 | Unit = metres As DEFAD but for PS parameter | ||||||||
| DEFW | 100$\mu$ | Unit = metres As DEFAD but for W parameter | ||||||||
| DEVACCT | false | If true, the simulator will measure load times for each device type during a simulator run. This information can be obtained using the GetDeviceStats() script function. | ||||||||
| DIGMINTIME | 1pS | Unit = Seconds Minimum digital resolution. Not yet fully supported | ||||||||
| DISABLESUBCKTMULTIPLIER | false | If true, the subcircuit multiplier parameter, M, will be disabled. See Subcircuit Instance. | ||||||||
| DISCONTINUOUSIFSLEWRATE | Default=0. Sets slew rate of discontinuous conditional expressions. See IF() Function for more information. | |||||||||
| EXPAND | false | The netlist with subcircuits expanded is output to the list file if this is specified. | ||||||||
| EXPANDFILE | Only applies if EXPAND also specified. Specifies a file instead of the list file to receive the expanded netlist. | |||||||||
| FASTPOINTTOL | 1.0 | Value for POINTTOL used during 'Fast transient start'. See POINTTOL below. | ||||||||
| FASTRELTOL | 0.001 | Value for RELTOL used during 'Fast transient start'. | ||||||||
| FLUXTOL | 1e-11 | Unit = V.secs The absolute flux tolerance for inductors. | ||||||||
| FORCETRANOPGROUP | false | Forces a separate data group to be created for transient analysis operating point data. This happens anyway if tstart>0. Use this option when simulating a large circuit and you wish to make extensive use of schematic bias annotation. See User's Manual/Graphs, Probes and Data Analysis/Viewing DC Operating Point Results for more details. | ||||||||
| FULLEVENTREPORT | false | If true, the simulator will save all event information. When false, only major events are recorded. Events can be obtained from the GetSimulatorEvents() script function and can be useful for diagnosing failed runs. | ||||||||
| GMIN | 1e-12 | Unit = Siemens (mhos) The minimum conductance allowed by the program. This has the effect of placing a resistor = 1/GMIN in parallel with every branch of the circuit. | ||||||||
| GMINMAXITERS | 1000 | Maximum total number of iterations allowed for GMIN stepping operating point algorithm. See Source and GMIN Stepping for details. | ||||||||
| GMINMULT | 10 | During GMIN stepping the value of GMIN is multiplied by a variable factor at each step. This option is the starting and maximum value of that factor. | ||||||||
| GMINSTEPITERLIMIT | 20 | Iteration limit for each step in GMIN stepping. Increase to 100 for compatibility with SIMetrix 2.0x and earlier. | ||||||||
| ICRES | 1 | Unit = ICRES. Initial condition resistive force. See .IC for details | ||||||||
| INITCONDMODE | 0 |
Sets behaviour of capacitors and inductors when given an initial condition parameter (IC).
May have these values:
For more information see Initial Conditions |
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| ITL1 | 100 | DC iteration limit used for initial DC operating point. | ||||||||
| ITL2 | 50 | DC iteration limit used for swept and multi-step analyses. | ||||||||
| ITL4 | 10 | Normal transient timepoint iteration limit. The behaviour of this parameter is slightly different in SIMetrix than other SPICE based simulators. See Convergence, Accuracy and Performance. | ||||||||
| ITL7 | 40 | Upper transient timepoint iteration limit. This is specific to SIMetrix. | ||||||||
| KEEPNOV | false | Disables saving voltage data | ||||||||
| KEEPNOI | false | Disables saving current data | ||||||||
| KEEPNOD | false | Disables saving digital data | ||||||||
| KEPPALLACI | false | Enables saving current data for semiconductor devices in AC analysis | ||||||||
| KEEPINTERNAL | false | Enables saving device internal data. (Signals internal to primitive devices, not subcircuits) | ||||||||
| KEEPTOP | false | Save only the data at the top level. This is default behaviour but this option overrides KEEPALL if this is also specified | ||||||||
| KEEPNONE | false | Disables saving all data except items explicitly requested using .GRAPH or .KEEP | ||||||||
| KEEPALL | false | Keep data inside all subcircuits | ||||||||
| KEEPSUBCKTDEPTH | -1 | Keep data in subcircuits to defined depth | ||||||||
| KEEPQUOTAFACTOR | 1.0 | Reduces data saved to a proportion of the total specified by eliminating on a priority basis | ||||||||
| LOGICHIGH | 2.2 | Unit = Volts Upper threshold for logic inputs. Other comments as for LogicThreshHigh | ||||||||
| LOGICLOW | 2.1 | Unit = Volts Lower threshold for logic inputs. Other comments as for LogicThreshHigh | ||||||||
| LOGICTHRESHHIGH | 5 | Unit = Volts Output voltage for logic high level. Used for & | and ~ operators for arbitrary source. See Arbitrary Source for more details. | ||||||||
| LOGICTHRESHLOW | 0 | Unit = Volts Output voltage for logic low level. Other comments as for LogicThreshHigh | ||||||||
| LOGPARAMEXPRESSIONS | false | If true, a log of parameter expressions in use will be output to the list file | ||||||||
| MATCHEDSUBCIRCUITS | false | If set, components within subcircuits are treated as matched for Monte Carlo analysis. See Monte Carlo Analysis. | ||||||||
| MAXEVTITER | 0 (sets internal default) | Maximum number of event driven passes allowed at each step. It is not usually necessary to change this value. | ||||||||
| MAXOPALTER | 0 (sets internal default) | Maximum number of alternations between analog and event-driven iterations. It is not usually necessary to change this value | ||||||||
| MAXORD | 2 | Maximum integration order. For METHOD=TRAP maximum value is 2. For METHOD=GEAR maximum value is 6. There is rarely any reason to change this value. | ||||||||
| MAXVDELTAABS | 0.5 | with MAXVDELTAREL, sets a limit on the amount of change per timestep for each node. Inactive if MAXVDELTAREL less than or equal to zero. See Voltage Delta Limit for further details. | ||||||||
| MAXVDELTAREL | 0.0 | See MAXVDELTAABS above. | ||||||||
| MC_ABSOLUTE _RECT | false | If set Monte Carlo distribution will be rectangular for absolute tolerances. Otherwise the distribution will be Gaussian. | ||||||||
| MC_MATCH _RECT | false | If set Monte Carlo distribution will be rectangular for matched tolerances. Otherwise the distribution will be Gaussian. | ||||||||
| MCHSPICE | false | Boolean. Enables Hspice mode for Monte Carlo distribution functions. See Enabling Hspice Distribution Functions for further information | ||||||||
| MCLOGFILE | mclog.txt | File name to receive Monte Carlo log. See Log File. | ||||||||
| MCUSELINEARDISTRIBUTION | false | Use a linear distribution for default tolerances with Monte Carlo analysis. If using TOL or MATCH parameters the distribution used follows a logarithmic characteristic. Set this option to use a conventional linear distribution. | ||||||||
| METHOD | trap | Numerical integration method. Either TRAP (default) or GEAR ". More info: See Integration Methods - METHOD option. | ||||||||
| MINBREAK | See notes | Unit = Seconds Minimum time between transient analysis breakpoints. A breakpoint is a point in time when an analysis is forced regardless of whether it is required by the timestep selection algorithm. Typically they are set at known turning points such as the start and end of a rising pulse. If two breakpoints are closer than MINBREAK they are merged into one. (there are exceptions to this e.g if the two breakpoints were generated by a single rising edge). Increasing MINBREAK can sometimes help convergence and simulation speed. The default value is MINTIMESTEP*100. (See below for MINTIMESTEP) | ||||||||
| MINGMINMULTIPLIER | 1.000001 | In GMIN stepping, the step size is multiplied by variable factor at each step. This step is reduced if convergence fails. If it is reduced below this value, the GMIN algorithm will abort and the next DC operating point strategy will be invoked. | ||||||||
| MINTIMESTEP | 1e-9 * Max time step | Unit = Seconds Minimum transient time step. Simulation will abort if it reaches this value. See .TRAN for value of Max time step. | ||||||||
| MOSGMIN | GMIN | Value of GMIN used between drain and source of MOSFETs. See MOSFET GMIN Implementation. | ||||||||
| MPNUMTHREADS | 0 | Sets number of threads (i.e. cores) to be used for simulation. The simulator will choose if set to zero (default value). See Using Multiple Cores for Single Step Runs. | ||||||||
| NEWGMIN | false | Changes the implementation of GMIN for 'old' MOS devices i.e. LEVELs 1-3. When this option is set, GMIN is implemented as a conductance between source and drain. Otherwise two conductances are added between drain and bulk and source and bulk. See MOSFET GMIN Implementation. | ||||||||
| NOCUR | false | Equivalent to ".KEEP /noi". Inhibits the saving of current data. | ||||||||
| NODELIMIT | 1e50 | Unit = Volts Maximum value allowed for circuit node during iteration. If exceeded, iteration will abort. (This does not usually mean the analysis will abort). Reducing this value can sometime solve floating point exceptions or unexplained singular matrices. | ||||||||
| NODESETRES | 1.0 | Unit = Ohms Driving resistance of nodeset force. See .NODESET for details. | ||||||||
| NOECHO | false | Inhibits display of netlist in list file. | ||||||||
| NOMCLOG | false | If specified, no Monte Carlo log file will be created. See Log File for details. | ||||||||
| NOMOD | false | If specified, no model parameter report will be output to the list file. | ||||||||
| NOMOS9GATENOISE | false | If specified, the drain induced gate noise model for MOS9 devices will be disabled. See NXP Compact Models. | ||||||||
| NOOPALTER | false | If specified, only a single pass will be made to resolve the operating point for event driven devices. | ||||||||
| NOOPINFO | false | Switches off creation of operating point info file for .OP analyses. See .OP for more details. | ||||||||
| NOOPITER | false | Use GMIN stepping for DC operating point analysis first. (i.e skip normal iteration method) | ||||||||
| NORAW | false | Output transient analysis values at intervals of tstep only. See .TRAN. | ||||||||
| NOSENSFILE | false | Switches off creation of sensitivity analysis data file. | ||||||||
| NoStopOnUnknownParam | See description |
Specifies action to be taken in the event of an unknown parameter being encountered in a .MODEL statement. Choices are:
TRUE: No action taken, simulation continues normally. FALSE: An error will be raised and the simulation will abort. WARN: A warning will be displayed but the simulation will continue. The default value is set by a front end "Set" variable of the same name. This can be set using the menu under Model Library tab. The "Set" variable default is WARN. If running in non-GUI mode the default will be controlled by the entry in the config file. See Global Settings. |
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| NOWARNINGS | false | Inhibits simulation warnings. | ||||||||
| NOVOLT | false | Equivalent to ".KEEP /nov". Inhibits the saving of voltage data. | ||||||||
| NUMDGT | 10 | Column width used for display of all values in list file and Monte Carlo log file. Minimum value is 8, maximum is 30. Note this value is column width not the number of significant digits. | ||||||||
| OLDLIMIT | false | If set SPICE 2 MOS limiting algorithm is used. Affects MOS Level 1,2 and 3 | ||||||||
| OLDMOSGMIN | 0 | Value of conductance placed between drain-bulk and source-bulk for BSIM3 and BSIM4 devices. Also applies to LEVEL 1-3 and LEVEL 17 MOSFETs if NEWGMIN parameter is set. See MOSFET GMIN Implementation. | ||||||||
| OLDMOSNOISE | false | MOS2 and BSIM3 devices return device noise in V2/Hz for SPICE3 and earlier versions of SIMetrix whereas other device's noise is returned in $\text{V}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$. From release 3 onwards all devices return noise in $\text{V}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$. Setting this option restores to behaviour of earlier versions. | ||||||||
| OPINFO | false | If set DC operating point info file is created for all analyses (except .SENS). Normally it is created only for .OP analyses. | ||||||||
| OPINFOFILE | false | Specify name of operating point info file. This is OP.TXT by default. | ||||||||
| OPTIMISE | 2 | Controls expression optimiser. 0=off, 1=on for .FUNC defined expressions, 2=on always. See Optimisation. | ||||||||
| PARAMLOG | Given |
Control amount of detail for parameter log in list file.
Choices:
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| PIVREL | 1e-3 | Tolerance for matrix pivot selection. This rarely needs to be altered. Reducing to 1e-4 can sometimes improve simulation speed a little but at higher risk of convergence failure. Setting this parameter to a high value e.g, 0.99 can sometimes fix convergence problems but may slow down the simulation. Valid values lie between 0 and 1. | ||||||||
| PIVTOL | 1e-13 |
Only effective when SPSOLVER=KSPARSE
This affects the matrix solution and rarely needs to be altered. It is the absolute minimum value for a matrix entry to be accepted as a pivot. Unexplained singular matrix errors can sometimes be overcome by lowering this value. (But note that singular matrix errors are usually caused by errors in the circuit such as floating nodes or shorted voltage sources). |
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| POINTTOL | 0.001 | A factor used to control the extent to which the maximum value attained by a signal is used to control its tolerance. This is new from release 4; set it to zero for pre release 4 behaviour. Increasing this value will speed up the simulation at the expense of precision. See Accuracy and Integration Methods. | ||||||||
| PTAACCEPTAT | 0 | If > 0, specifies a time when pseudo transient analysis results will be accepted unconditionally. This is useful when a circuit comes close to convergence during pseudo transient, but doesn't quite make it due to an oscillation. See Pseudo Transient Analysis. | ||||||||
| PSPICECOMPAT | false | Sets some option settings to values compatible with PSpice. Currently this sets ICRES=1m and INITCONDMODE=2 | ||||||||
| PTACONFIG | 0 | Integer from 0 to 15 sets internal parameters for pseudo transient algorithm used to find DC operating point. See Pseudo Transient Analysis. | ||||||||
| PTAMAXITERS | 20000 | Maximum total number of iterations allowed for pseudo transient algorithm used to find DC operating point. See Pseudo Transient Analysis. | ||||||||
| PTAOUTPUTVECS | false | If specified, signal vectors will be output during pseudo transient analysis. This may be used to diagnose a failure. See Pseudo Transient Analysis. | ||||||||
| RELTOL | 0.001 | This is the relative tolerance that must be met for each analysis point. Reducing this number will improve accuracy at the expense of simulation time or/and convergence reliability. Simulation results can not be relied upon if its value is increased beyond 0.01. A more detailed discussion is given in Accuracy and Integration Methods. | ||||||||
| RESTHRESH | 1e-6 | Resistance threshold. If a resistor is specified that is below this value, SIMetrix will use a voltage based implementation (V=IR) instead of the conventional current based implementation (V=I/R). Voltage based resistors are slightly less efficient but allow R=0 without numerical overflow | ||||||||
| RSHUNT | Infinite | If specified a resistor of the specified value is placed from every node to ground. This can resolve problems with floating nodes. | ||||||||
| RTNSEED | 0 | Seed used for real time noise | ||||||||
| SEED | 0 | Integer value. If non-zero will be used to initialise random number generator used for Monte Carlo analysis distribution functions. See Seeding the Random Number Generator. | ||||||||
| SENSFILE | SENS.TXT | Specify name of sensitivity data file. | ||||||||
| SNAPSHOTFILE | Specifies file name used to save snapshot data. Defaults to netlist name with .sxsnp extension | |||||||||
| SOADERATING | 1.0 | Scales min and max values used in .SETSOA specification. This allows a de-rating policy to be globally applied to SOA limits. | ||||||||
| SOAEND | -1 | Specifies end time point for SOA. Use with SOASTART. -1 means end of simulation | ||||||||
| SOAMODE | false |
Controls the Safe Operating Area (SOA) test mode. See .SETSOA for details on how to define a SOA test.
Can set to:
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| SOAOUTPUT | list |
Can be:
Note that all results are always stored for retrieval using the script function GetSOAResults. So even if "none" is specified the SOA data is always available. |
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| SOASTART | 0.0 | Specifies start time for SOA. Use with SOAEND | ||||||||
| SOAWRITEDEFS | false | If specified, SOA definitions are written to the list file | ||||||||
| SOURCEMAXITERS | 1000 | Maximum total number of iterations permitted for source stepping algorithm. Set to zero to disable limit | ||||||||
| SPSOLVER | KLU | Can be KLU or KSPARSE. Sets choice of matrix solver. See Matrix Solver. | ||||||||
| TEMP | 27 | Unit = $°$C Operating temperature of circuit. Note this value can be overridden locally for some devices. You can also use .TEMP for this. | ||||||||
| TIMESTATS | false | Equivalent to ACCT | ||||||||
| TLMINBREAK | See note | Minimum break point for transmission lines. Works in the same way as MINBREAK but only for break points generated by lossless transmission lines. Default = MINTIMESTEP * 5e-5 | ||||||||
| TNOM | 27 | Unit = $°$C Temperature at which model parameters are defined. This can be overridden in the model statement. | ||||||||
| TRTOL | 7 | This only affects transient analysis. It is a relative value that is used to determine an acceptable value for the 'local truncation error' before an analysis point is accepted. Reducing this value cause the simulator to model the effects of energy storage elements more accurately at the expense of simulation time. See Accuracy and Integration Methods. | ||||||||
| TRYTOCOMPACT | false | Forces compaction of data for lossy transmission lines. This speeds up simulation at the expense of accuracy. | ||||||||
| VERILOGSIMULATOR |
Verilog simulator used for mixed-signal Verilog-HDL simulation. Name specified references a section in the VerilogHDL.ini file. With the default configuration, this may be:
CVER - GPL Cver simulator Icarus - Icarus Verilog simulator |
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| VERILOGROOTFILE | vsx_root.v | SIMetrix creates the Verilog top-level module for each run and stores it in a file with this name | ||||||||
| VERILOGROOTMODULE | vsx_root | Name given to Verilog top-level module created by SIMetrix | ||||||||
| VERILOGPORTPREFIX | VSX$_ | Connection names within the SIMetrix-created top-level module have this prefix. | ||||||||
| VERILOGRESOLUTION | 1e-15 | Timing resolution for Verilog simulations. This is the smallest time that can be resolved. The largest time is this value multiplied by $2^{64}$. | ||||||||
| VERILOGDISABLEMODULECACHE | false | Disable cache of module information. See Module Cache for further details | ||||||||
| VERILOGUSECONSOLE | false | If set, a console window will be created for the Verilog simulator. Any output messages emitted by the Verilog simulator will be output to this console. | ||||||||
| VERILOGDISABLEINTERNALVECTORS | false | If set, no data for Verilog internal connections will be generated. See Data Vector Output. | ||||||||
| VNTOL | 1$\mu$ | Unit = V The absolute voltage error tolerance. Circuits with large voltages present (>100) may benefit from an increase in this value. See Accuracy and Integration Methods. | ||||||||
| WIDTH | 80 | Number of columns used for list file output. This may be set to any reasonable value and not limited to the choice of 80 or 132 as with SPICE2 | ||||||||
| WIRETABLE | none | Define file containing wire table used for the digital simulator's wire delay. See Wire Delay. | ||||||||
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