Thermoelectric Behavior Simulation in Electronic Systems

In the electronics industry, there are currently many circuit simulators based on PSPICE that solve the system of equations resulting from the application of Kirchhoff’s two theorems (for voltages and currents) for all circuit nodes and all circuit loops, respectively [1]. A major disadvantage of these simulators is that they cannot use components where electrical parameters change depending on other non-electrical parameters, such as temperature or something else. One such device is the thermistor, whose electrical resistance changes non-linearly with temperature. Current solutions offered by PSPICE simulators consist of modeling with ABM blocks the characteristics of the components, where the input variable is a temperature value. This paper proposes the use of a simulator that allows for the addition of non-electrical components. The paper describes the design steps and highlights, comparatively, the advantages of including the thermo-electric components directly in the simulator compared to the currently used PSPICE simulators that contain only electrical components. The paper emphasizes the advantages obtained in the educational process; the authors highlight the fact that by using these new simulators, students can understand much more easily how the entire system works and the correct way of designing automatic systems.