FUNDAMENTALS OF ELECTRONIC WORKBENCH (EWB)

What is Electronic Workbench (EWB)

Electronic Workbench is a simulation package for electronic circuits. It allows you to draw and
analyze circuits without using breadboards, real components or actual instruments. EWB’s click-
and-drag operations make editing a circuit fast and easy. You can change parameters and circuit
components on the fly, which make “What-if” analysis straight forward.
Electronic Workbench Screen (Basic Window Elements)
Whenever you open electronic workbench (EWB), the figure below will appear. This is called
the opening screen of electronic workbench.

Standard Parts Work Space

Menu Title Power Switch
toolbar Bin/Instruments
Bar
toolbar

Circuit Description Area Task Bar

Fig 1.0: Electronic workbench opening screen

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The view of the workspace or circuit window can be changed to grid form by going to
Circuit / Schematic Options / Grid / Show Grid. The workspace with grid is shown below. The
grid helps to draw vertical and horizontal lines and hence gives circuits professional appearance.

Workspace with grid

Fig 1.1: Electronic workbench opening screen with grid

Parts Bin/Instruments toolbar

The parts Bin/Instruments toolbar is shown below. The parts Bin contains the components (e.g.
resistor, Transistor, Diode, Amplifier, Gates, connector, battery source etc) required to draw the
circuit. The Instruments (e.g. function generator, oscilloscope, bode plotter, word generator etc)
are used to test the performance of the circuit.

Instruments
Sources
Miscellaneou
Basic s
Control
Diode s
Indicator
s Transistors s
Digital
Analog ICs

Mixed ICs Logic Gates

Digital ICs
Fig 1.2: Part Bin/Instrument toolbar

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Sources Parts Bin: Contains the types of sources available in Electronics Workbench,
including battery, AC voltage source, Vcc source and FM source.

Basic Parts Bin: Contains the basic components available in Electronics Workbench such
as capacitor, relay, switch and transformer.

Diodes Parts Bin: Contains the types of diodes available in Electronics Workbench,
including diac, triac, LED and Zener diode.

Transistors Parts Bin: Contains the transistor-associated parts in Electronics Workbench,

including NPN transistor, P-channel JFET, N-channel GaAsFet
and 3-terminal enhanced P-MOSFET.

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Analog ICs Parts Bin: Contains the operational amplifiers available in Electronics
Workbench, including 5-terminal opamp, 9-terminal opamp,
comparator and phase-locked loop.

Mixed ICs Parts Bin: Contains the analog-to-digital converter, digital-to-analog

converter, monostable and 555 timer.

Logic Gates Parts Bin: Contains the Logic Gates available in Electronics Workbench,
such as, AND gate, OR gate, NAND gate, NOR gate etc.

Digital Parts Bin: Contains the digital components available in Electronics

Workbench, including half-adder, flip-flops, multiplexer, shift
register and encoder.

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Indicators Parts Bin: Contains the indicators available in Electronics Workbench,
including voltmeter, ammeter, probe, bulb, buzzer, 7-segment
display and bargraph.

Controls Parts Bin: Contains the controls available in Electronics Workbench,

including voltage differentiator, voltage gain block, multiplier,
voltage limiter and divider.

Miscellaneous Parts Bin: Contains the components that do not fit into any of the other
categories, including fuse, transmission lines, crystal, DC motor,
vacuum tube, text box and title block.

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 Indicators

Voltmeter Decoded Bargraph Display

Ammeter Bargraph Display

Bulb Buzzer

Probe Decoded Seven Segment Display

Seven segment display

Fig 1.3: Indicator toolbar

Voltmeter: Use the voltmeter to measure DC or AC voltage differences between points in a

circuit. Attach its probes in parallel with the points you want to measure. The side with the
darker border is the negative terminal. You can use as many voltmeters as you want.

To specify whether the voltmeter is to measure the DC or AC component of a signal, double-

click it and choose the mode you want. When set to AC, the voltmeter displays the RMS value of
the signal.

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Ammeter: Insert an ammeter in series with the circuit wherever you want to measure current.
The side with the darker border is the negative terminal. You can use as many ammeters from the
parts bin as you want.

To specify whether you want an ammeter to measure a signal's DC or AC component, double-

click it, then choose the mode you want. When set to AC, the ammeter displays the RMS value
of the signal.

Bulb: The light bulb is a resistive component that dissipates energy in the form of light.

Specify its power rating in watts (Pmax) from mW to kW, and its maximum voltage (Vmax)
from mV to kV by double clicking it. The bulb will blow out if the voltage across it exceeds
Vmax or the wattage across it exceeds Pmax.
In AC circuits, Vmax is the peak value of the voltage, not its RMS value.

Probe: The probe, corresponding to an LED (light-emitting diode), lights up when a "1" or high
value reaches the input terminal. It requires no external resistor or ground connection, though
practical circuits must supply them.

Attach the probe to any point in a digital circuit to monitor high and low levels. You can use the
probe to show the action of counters and similar circuits. You can change the properties of a
probe by double clicking it.

Seven-Segment Display: The seven-segment display actively shows its state while the circuit is
running. The seven terminals control segments a to g.

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When the value at a terminal is high (1), the corresponding segment lights up.

Decoded Seven-segment display: The decoded seven-segment display is easier to use than the
regular seven segment display, since it requires only four inputs. Each hexadecimal digit (0 to 9
and A to F) is displayed when its 4-bit binary equivalent is received.

Buzzer: The buzzer makes use of the computer's built-in speaker to simulate a piezoelectric
buzzer.

It causes the computer's speaker to beep at a set frequency when the voltage across its terminals
exceeds its set voltage. You can change the properties of a buzzer by double clicking it.

Bargraph display: The bargraph display is an array of 10 LEDs arranged side-by-side. This
component may be used to indicate visually the rise and fall of a voltage. The voltage to be
measured needs to be decoded into levels using comparators which are used to drive each
individual LED. The terminals on the left side of the display are anodes and the terminals on the
right are cathodes. Each LED lights up when the turn-on current, Ion flows through it.

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Decoded bargraph: The decoded bargraph display consists of 10 LEDs arranged side-by-side,
just like the regular bargraph display. The difference is that the decoded bargraph display has
decoding circuitry built-in so that the only input it requires is the voltage to be measured.

The circuitry inside decodes the voltage and lights up the appropriate number of LEDs
depending on the voltage level.
The decoded bargraph display also offers a very high resistance to the input voltage.
The voltage at which each LED lights up from lowest to highest is given by the formula:
Von = V1 + (Vh - V1)/9 * (n - 1)
Where
n = 1, 2, . . , 9 (the number of LED)
Vl = minimum voltage required for the lowest segment (default 1V)
Vh = minimum voltage required for the highest segment (default 10V)

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 Building and testing a Circuit
To build and simulate any type of circuit using electronic workbench (EWB), it is necessary to
follow the procedures given below:

 Place the required components on the circuit window by clicking and dragging from the
appropriate part bin

 Arrange the circuit elements

 Wire the components together

 Set values for the components

 Save your circuit

 Attach appropriate instruments and/or indicators

 Set the properties (values) of the instruments or indicators

 Simulate the circuit by clicking the ON (1) button shown

 Finally observe the output (result) of the simulation and make necessary comments,
reports or conclusion

 You can save the data collected and displayed by some instruments (e.g. Oscilloscope,
bode plotter etc) into an ASCII file. The file can then be read by other programs such as
Matlab or Excel for reports or graphs.

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 Getting help
To get information about a component or a test instrument, select it (by clicking the left mouse
button on the component), and then press the F1 key. You will see the help window with the
information you requested. The following is an example of the help menu for a 2-input NOR
Gate.

Fig 1.4: Electronic workbench help window

You can also go directly to the electronic workbench contents help menu by clicking the
question mark button (?) on the standard toolbar.

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 Illustrative examples on building and simulation of circuits

Example 1: Simple resistive network to illustrate the uses of Ammeter (A), Voltmeter (V),
Multimeter, Ohmmeter (Ω), Bargraph and Analysis graph.
a. Build the circuit shown below.

Fig 1.5: Simple resistive network

b. Use the appropriate instruments or indicators on the instrument or indicator toolbar to find

I. The Thevenin’s resistance of the circuit,

II. The main current,

III. The current flowing through resistors R1 and R2,

IV. The voltage across resistor R1 and R2,

V. The current flowing through resistor R3 and R4 and

VI. The voltage across R3 and R4.

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Step 1: Place the components on the circuit window
To build the circuit, you need a battery, four (4) resistors and a ground connection.
Choose File/New to open a new circuit file
Find the following items from parts bin toolbars and place them in the circuit window using the
drag and drop method as shown below.

Fig 1.6: placing components in circuit window

Step 2: Arrange the circuit elements

You can change the orientation of the circuit elements either by rotating them or flipping them
over. To do this, select the circuit element and either click on the standard rotated/flip icons on
the toolbar, or select the desired operation under circuit. In this case you want to rotate two (2)
resistors.
 Select both by either CTRL + click, or by dragging the mouse over them.

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  Choose your favorite way to rotate by 90 degrees.

Note: the selected circuits elements are highlighted/changed color.

Fig 1.7: Arranging the circuit elements

Step 3: Wire the components together

Most components have short lines pointing outwards called the terminals. To wire the
components together you have to create wires between the components.
 Move the pointer to the terminal on the top of the batter. When you are at the right
position to make a connection, a black dot appears. Now drag the wire to the top of the
upper resistor. Again a black dot appears, and the wire snaps into position.

 Wire the rest of the components in a similar manner. Initially your wiring may not look
very pretty. However, after making the connections, you can move wires and components
around without breaking the connections. The wired circuit is shown below.

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 Fig 1.8: wired circuit

Step 4: Set values (properties) for the components

Initially, each component comes up with a pre-set, default value, e.g., the battery voltage is set to
12V. You can change all component values to suit your application.
 Double click on the component

 Select VALUE

 Change its value

 Click OK

You can also change other settings at this point such as the Label or Display

Fig 1.9: setting values for the components

Step 5: Save your circuit

It is always a good practice to save your work frequently!

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  Select File/Save

 Proceed in the normal way for saving files

Step 6: Attach appropriate instruments and/or indicators to simulate your circuit.

I. Finding the Thevenin’s resistor of the circuit: The Thevenin resistance of a circuit is
defined as the resistance that an ohmmeter (Ω) measures across the load terminal when
all sources are reduced to zero and the load resistor is open. To reduce a voltage source to
zero, replace it by a short. Hence the circuit is modified as shown below to help calculate
the total (Thevenin) resistance.

 Remove the voltage source and replace it by a short.

 Place two connectors A and B as shown below. This ensures the load resistor to
be open.

 Place a multimeter in the circuit and select the Ω (ohmmeter) option. Connect the
negative (-) terminal to point A and the positive (+) terminal to point B. double-
click the multimeter to give you a multimeter property dialogue box.

 Activate the circuit by clicking the power switch at the top right corner of the
EWB window.

 Observe the output (readings) from the ohmmeter. The reading of the multimeter
gives a Thevenin (total) of 3.0435Ω.

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 Fig 1.10: Attaching instrument(s) to circuit

II. Finding the main current: Place an ammeter in series immediately above the 12V source
in the circuit. This Ammeter should measure the main current. It gives a reading of
313.0mA.

III. Current through R1 and R2: place one ammeter in series with R1 and another in series
with R2. The current though R1 is given as -208.7mA (the negative sign is due to the
change in position of the + and – terminals on the ammeter). The side with the darker
border is the negative terminal. The current through R2 is 104.3mA.

IV. Current through R3 and R4: place one Ammeter in series with R3 and another in series
with R4. Both of the Ammeters give a reading of 313.0mA. This is because the two
resistors are in series and therefore most have the same current passing through them.

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 Fig 1.11: Attaching Ammeter in a circuit

V. The voltage across R1 and R2: connect one voltmeter in parallel with R1 and the other in
parallel with R2. Both voltmeters give a reading of 1.043V. This is because the two
resistors are in parallel and most therefore have the same voltage.

VI. The voltage across R3 and R4: connect voltmeters in parallel with R3 and R4. The
voltage across R3 is 4.696V and that across R4 is 6.261V.

Fig 1.12: attaching voltmeters in a circuit

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Example 2: High pass filter illustrating the use of function generator and bode plotter.

The circuit shown below represents a four-pole high pass filter. A high pass filter passes the high
frequencies but blocks the low frequencies. The cutoff frequency is given by fc=1/(2ΠRC).Below
this frequency, the output voltage decreases 20dB per decade.

The frequency response of a filter is a graph of its voltage gain versus frequency. EWB Bode
plotter instrument can help us to get a bode plot of this circuit.
 Build the circuit exactly as shown below

 Connect the function generator and bode plotter to the circuit as shown below. You can
double-click on the bode plotter and function generator to change their settings.

Fig 1.13: 4th order high pass filter

The output from the bode plotter is shown below.

Fig 1.14: 4th order low pass filter frequency response using bode plotter

We observe that the circuit’s 3dB cut-off frequency is 1.751 KHz at 2.922dB.

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Example 3: AC-to-DC Conversion.
It is generally known that diodes are circuit elements that pass current in one direction and block
it in the opposite one. Hence diodes can be used to convert an AC voltage, maybe from a
transformer, to a DC voltage. Circuits that perform this operation are called rectifiers.

Build the single phase half-wave rectifier circuit shown below.

Fig 1.15: Half wave rectifier

Connect the oscillator as shown above to observe the difference between the input and output
voltage. The output from the oscilloscope may not be readable. Make the following changes in
the oscilloscope property dialogue box.
Time base of the oscilloscope is 5.00ms/div,
Channel A is 10V/div,
Channel A’s y-position is-1.40 and
Channel B is 10V/div.
Activate the circuit by clicking the ON button (1) on the left side of the circuit window.

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 Fig 1.16: half wave rectifier signal from an oscilloscope
From the oscillator it is crystal clear that only positive voltage goes across the resistor, when the
input voltage goes negative the output voltage is zero. However, we realized that this isn’t quite
what we want. We want the voltage to be constant, and certainly not something that is zero half
the time.
We know that a capacitor can store charge. May be this could be used to keep the voltage up
during the periods that the diode blocks the current. The next step is to put a capacitor in. The
problem is, we don’t know how large it should be. To save money and space we try to minimize
the capacitance. We started with 10uF and change the value to see what we can get away with.

Fig 1.17: half wave rectifier with a capacitive load

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 Fig 1.18: half wave rectifier with capacitive load signal from oscilloscope

With a sufficiently large capacitor you can get a DC voltage with a very small ripple as shown
above.

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Example 4: combinational circuit illustrating the use of probe, word
generator, logic analyzer and logic converter

Problem definition: A Bank vault system is made up of three lockers. The key to open each
locker is owned by a separate person.

a. Design a system that will open the bank vault only when at least two of the keys are
placed in the lockers.

b. Build the circuit using electronic workbench

c. Simulate the circuit using the word generator and probe

d. Generate a waveform for the inputs and output using the logic analyzer instrument

e. Generate a truth table for the circuit using the EWB logic converter instrument (this truth
table must be the same as the previous one)

f. Convert the truth table into a Boolean equation using the logic converter (this should also
be the same as the previous equation)

g. Minimize (simplify) the Boolean equation using the truth table-to-simplified Boolean
equation feature found in the logic converter

h. Draw the circuit diagram of the simplified Boolean equation using the Boolean-to-circuit
feature found in the logic converter.

i. Implement the circuit using NAND gates only by the use of the logic converter.

a. Conversion of problem to truth (state) table: To solve this problem, we first need to
interpret the problem using a truth table.

Let logic 1 represents a state when a key is place in a locker and

Logic 0 represents a state when a key is not place in a locker.
Let key 1 be A

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 Key 2 be B and
Key 3 be C

A B C F
0 0 0 0
0 0 1 0
0 1 0 0
0 1 1 1
1 0 0 0
1 0 1 1
1 1 0 1
1 1 1 1

Table 1.0: truth table of bank vault problem

Conversion of truth table to Boolean equation: The Boolean equation for the output
function F is given as
F=A’BC+AB’C+ABC’+ABC
F=C(A’B+AB’)+A(BC’+BC)

b. Conversion of Boolean equation to circuit diagram: The circuit with this equation is
drawn and shown below.

Fig 1.19: Circuit for opening bank vault

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c. The word generator can drive a digital circuit by producing streams of 16-bit words. It is
used to send digital words or patterns of bits into circuits to test them.

 Attach a word generator to your circuit as indicated below.

 Double click on the word generator to open the word generator’s control window.

 In the word generator property dialogue box, set the frequency to 1Hz, Initial
window to 0000, and final window to 000F. Click on the pattern button and
accept the Up Counter option. While watching the probe (LED), click the step
button on the word generator’s control window. Try burst and Cycle buttons as
well.

Fig 1.20: word generator property window

Fig 1.21: Attaching a word generator to a circuit

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 It is observed that the probe only light up when it receives 0003(011), 0005(101), 0006
(110) or 0007(111) as input signals. That’s the vault will open only for these input
signals.

d. The 16-channel logic analyzer displays a circuit’s output as a waveform diagram showing
voltage level and timing, similar to what you might observe on an oscilloscope attached
to a circuit.

 Attach a logic analyzer to the circuit as shown below

 Double click on the logic analyzer to open logic analyzer’s control window.

 Set the clocks per division to 1

 Click on the set button in the clock area and set the Internal Clock Rate to 1Hz

 Turn the power switch on and see the waveform on the analyzer’s window

 Verify the waveform with the truth table

Fig 1.22: attaching a logic analyzer to a circuit

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 Fig 1.23: Logic Analyzer screen showing the timing diagram of a circuit

e. The logic converter can convert a digital circuit among different representations-truth
table, Boolean expressions and circuit schematic.
 Connect a logic converter to the circuit as shown below

Fig 1.24: Connecting a logic converter to a circuit

 Double-click on the converter to open the logic converter dialogue box shown
below.

 Click on the circuit-to-truth table button, to get the truth table

of the circuit as shown below.

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 Fig 1.25: logic converter window showing truth table and equation of a circuit

 Click on the truth table-to-Boolean expression button,

to get the Boolean expression of the circuit. This is shown above to be
F=A’BC+AB’C+ABC’+ABC

 Click on to get the simplified Boolean equation as shown

below

Fig 1.26: logic converter window showing the simplified equation of a circuit

This is found to be F=AC+AB+BC

 Click on for electronic workbench to automatically draw a

circuit representing the simplified Boolean equation. This circuit is shown below

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 Fig 1.27: circuit diagram of the simplified equation of the bank vault problem

 Click on for electronic workbench to automatically implement

the Boolean equation using NAND gates only. The circuit using NAND gates
only is shown below.

Fig 1.28: circuit diagram of bank vault circuit using NAND gates only

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Example 5: Sequential circuit illustrating the use of a seven-segment decoder, probe.

a. Build a sequential circuit with the following equations

JA=D’+B’C’ KA=1
JB=AD’ KB=A+D
JC=ABD’ KC=D+ABC
JD=ABC KD=A+B+C

b. Connect probes to the appropriate outputs and observe the sequence in which they light
up

c. Connect a decoded-seven segment hex display to convert the binary state to decimal state
of the circuit. Hence deduce the mod of the counter.

Circuit implementation: The sequential circuit with the specification above is shown below.
 Attach 4 probes to the circuit as shown below
 Double-click the clock signal and change the frequency to 1Hz. If the frequency is high,
you cannot be able to properly observe the counting sequence.
 Activate the circuit by clicking the power button.
 Attach a decoded seven segment display to the circuit as shown below
 Activate the circuit by clicking the power button

It is observed that the circuit counts from 0 up to 9 and recycles again. Hence this circuit
represents a decade counter (scale of 10-up counter)

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Fig 1.29: decade counter circuit

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