FOSS Circuit Simulators

AN OPEN-SOURCE, FREE CIRCUIT SIMULATOR

by: Bryan Cockfield on July 30, 2023

The original circuit simulation software, called the Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis, or SPICE as it is more commonly known, was originally developed at the University of Califorina Berkeley in the 1970s with an open-source license. That’s the reason for the vast versions of SPICE available now decades after the original was released, not all of which are as open or free as we might like [1].

Fig: The Quite Universal Circuit Simulator includes a GUI based on the Qt toolkit and handles ad and ac analysis, S-parameters, harmonic balance analysis, noise analysis, and so forth. 

We’ve [2] listed all the simulators we found - the good, the bad, and the ugly - that actually did perform circuit simulation in some fashion. They are provided alphabetically, along with the most notable benefits and drawbacks we uncovered.

REF:
[1] An Open-Source, Free Circuit Simulator by Bryan Cockfield on July 30, 2023
[2] Best free analog circuit simulators by Lee Teschler on January 26, 2022