Qucs-S: Qucs with SPICE

Download links

The latest stable release is Qucs-S-24.4.1 (Installation instructions...)

Contribution guide

Qucs-S is open for everyone's contribution. See here for contribution guide.

Donations

Qucs-S accepts donations using Boosty: https://boosty.to/qucs_s

News

  • October, 31, 2024 Qucs-S-24.4.0 is released! See Release notes and dowload link
  • July, 23, 2024 Qucs-S-24.3.0 is released! See Release notes and dowload link
  • March, 25, 2024 Qucs-S-24.2.0 is released! See Release notes and dowload link
  • February, 16, 2024 Qucs-S-24.1.0 is released! See Release notes and dowload link
  • October, 26, 2023 Qucs-S-2.1.0 is released! See Release notes and dowload link
  • August, 19, 2023 Qucs-S-2.0.0 is released! See Release notes and dowload link
  • June, 07, 2023 Qucs-S-1.1.0 is released! See Release notes and dowload link
  • April, 23, 2023 Qucs-S-1.0.2 is released!
  • February, 4, 2023 Qucs-S-1.0.1 is released!
  • October, 30, 2022 Qucs-S-1.0.0 is released!
  • July, 01, 2022 Qucs-S-0.0.24 is released!
  • February, 20, 2022 Qucs-S-0.0.23 is released! Application ported to Qt5.
  • January, 19, 2020 Qucs-S-0.0.22 is released!
  • October, 31, 2018 Qucs-S-0.0.21 is released!
  • June, 24, 2018 Added packages for Ubuntu 18.04
  • October, 31, 2017 Qucs-S-0.0.20 is released!
  • October, 25, 2017 Added packages for CentOS and Fedora
  • January, 26, 2017 Qucs-S 0.0.19 is released! The first stable release.
  • July 25, 2015 Qucs-S RC1 released.

Simulation example with Qucs-S and Ngspice


(More screenshots...)

Support

Publications

Qucs-S is also a research software. Check our publication list.

What is Qucs-S?

Qucs-S is a circuit simulation program based onQucs circuit simulator. The "S" letter indicates SPICE. The purpose of the Qucs-S project is to use free circuit simulation kernels (Ngspice, Qucsator, Xyce) with the unified GUI based on Qt6 toolkit. It merges the power of SPICE and the simplicity of the Qucs GUI. Qucs-S is not a simulator by itself, but it requires to use an external simulation backend with it. Qucs-S allows to use the following open-source simulation kernels:

Screenshots

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Main features

Installation

Linux

Binary packages

The usage of binary packages is the preffered way to get Qucs-S.

AppImage for all Linux distributions

You can run Qucs-S on all Linux platforms using AppImage without building it from source. This way is preferrable, if there is no prebuilt package for your distribution and/or you have not root access to the machine. Otherwise it is recommneded to install the binary package from the repository (see the section above).

Download AppImage and make it executable, then run it from the console or your file manager. Please note that AppImage doesn't include Ngspice and you need to install it using system package manager.

Building from source

If binary packages are not available for your distrubution, then you will need to build Qucs-S from source: Refer to the README.md of the Qucs-S github repository for the recent build instructions.

FreeBSD

Qucs could be installed on FreeBSD using ports or binary package.

Windows

Windows portable package could be downloaded as zipped distribution. Unpack and launch qucs-s.exe from bin subdirectory. Only 64-bit windows packages are available:

You need to download and install Ngspice and/or XYCE manually from official websites: http://ngspice.org/ https://xyce.sandia.gov respectively.

You may also use Windows installer. Launch the installer executable and follow the installation wizard guide. Windows installer includes both Ngspice and QucsatorRF simulation kernels. You may download and update simulation backends manually and specify the simulator paths in application settings.

MacOS

Use homebrew to install Qucs-S. Run below command to install latest Qucs-S.

brew install --cask ra3xdh/qucs-s/qucs-s@nightly

Linux

Run qucs-s from the the command line or launch Qucs-S icon in your desktop environment menu after the installation. Ngspice is set as the default simulation backend at the first run. You can change it later in the application settings.

Windows

For portable package run the qucs-s.exe binary to launch application. You may create a desktop shortcut for it.

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Developers

Project founders:

See the full contributors list at the Github repository page: https://github.com/ra3xdh/qucs_s/graphs/contributors

Contribution guide

Steps to contribute

Source code of the Qucs-S is hosted at the Github in the following repository: https://github.com/ra3xdh/qucs_s. You need to clone this repository if you wish to contribute.

git clone https://github.com/ra3xdh/qucs_s
cd qucs_s
git checkout -b your_feature
Use CMake to compile Qucs-S. After you make changes, prepare a pull request to Qucs-S repository.

Branching model

Currently there are two main branches in Qucs-S repository:

Build instruction (development branches)

Refer to the README.md of the Qucs-S github repository for the recent build instructions. (to top...)

Documentation

Publications

Qucs-S is not a simple circuit simulator, but also a research software. Please cite our articles, if you are using Qucs-S in your research.
  1. Brinson, M. E., and Kuznetsov, V. (2016) A new approach to compact semiconductor device modelling with Qucs Verilog-A analogue module synthesis. Int. J. Numer. Model., 29: 1070-1088. (BibTeX)
  2. D. Tomaszewski, G. Głuszko, M. Brinson, V. Kuznetsov and W. Grabinski, "FOSS as an efficient tool for extraction of MOSFET compact model parameters," 2016 MIXDES - 23rd International Conference Mixed Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, Lodz, 2016, pp. 68-73. (BibTeX)
  3. M. Brinson and V. Kuznetsov, "Qucs-0.0.19S: A new open-source circuit simulator and its application for hardware design," 2016 International Siberian Conference on Control and Communications (SIBCON), Moscow, 2016, pp. 1-5. (BibTeX)
  4. M. Brinson and V. Kuznetsov, "Improvements in Qucs-S equation-defined modelling of semiconductor devices and IC's," 2017 MIXDES - 24th International Conference "Mixed Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, Bydgoszcz, 2017, pp. 137-142. (BibTeX)
  5. M. Brinson and V. Kuznetsov, "Extended behavioural device modelling and circuit simulation with Qucs-S" International Journal of Electronics, 2017, pp.1 - 14 (BibTeX)