book Mobk059 March 9, 2007 10:21

TRANSIENT CIRCUITS AND LAPLACE TRANSFORMS 25

FIGURE 3.3: High-pass CR circuit

a component that is not connected to the ground reference point, such as the voltage across the
capacitor. Select the PSpice/Markers/ Voltage Differential to place two consecutive markers,
where one marker has a plus symbol and the other has a negative symbol (or use the icons from
the top marker icon toolbar).
Apply the Laplace transform and obtain expressions for the capacitor and resistor voltages.
We may obtain current or voltage expressions in time using the inverse Laplace transform table
given in the appendix. After simulation, compare your calculations to the simulation results for
currents and voltages evaluated at certain times. The Sw tClose switch part from the eval.olb
library is closed at time t = 0 s (Assume the capacitor is initially uncharged). Evaluate the
capacitor voltage at t = 5 s, where V 1 = 10 V, R1 = 2 , C = 1 F. Capacitance entered in
PSpice as 1 F (no space between the number and the unit) is interpreted as 1 Femto farads—a
much smaller capacitor, so leave out the F symbol.

3.4.1 Solution
The first switch, sw tClose, closes at a certain time (Note: the sw tOpen switch opens at a
specified time). DLclick the sw tClose part to set the following parameters:
Time to close = TCLOSE = 0 s,
Transient time = TTRAN = 1 us,
Switch resistance when closed = RCLOSED = 0.01 , and
Switch resistance when opened = ROPEN = 1 Meg
Other mechanical switches are available in the discrete.olb library. The voltage across the
capacitor increases exponentially because the current into the capacitor accumulates charge on
the capacitor plates. The capacitor current, however, decreases exponentially with time because
the capacitor voltage that is building up with time opposes the source voltage. The circuit time
constant, τ = CR, is the time it takes for the capacitor voltage to charge up to 63 % of the applied
step voltage. The time constant is also found by extrapolating the initial slope of the capacitor
voltage with a straight line until it intersects a line drawn across from the final capacitor voltage
to the y-axis. The time constant τ is then measured by dropping a perpendicular line from