The Linear Sweep is a type of frequency sweep which may be added as a frequency entry in a Sweep Set in the Sweeps page of the Circut Settings dialog box. A Linear sweep is pictured below followed by definitions of the control fields.
A linear sweep is used to execute an analysis using only one or multiple frequencies evenly spaced in an ascending order.
Enter the Start, Stop and Step Size or number of points values in the appropriate text entry boxes. You click on the drop list to change from Step Size to number of points.
If you wish to analyze at only one frequency, enter that frequency in the Start text entry box. Otherwise, Start provides the beginning frequency, Stop the ending frequency and Step the spacing. You may also specify the interval by entering a value in the # Points text entry box. For instance if the Frequency Units were set to GHz, then the values of 2, 10, 2 would start an analysis at 2 GHz and end at 10 GHz with steps of 2 GHz (e.g. 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 GHz).
If you are simulating at a large number of frequencies, an Adaptive Sweep is often a more efficient way of calculating your response as an ABS sweep usually only requires a small number of analysis points to synthesize a fine resolution band. If you select the Adaptive checkbox at the end of the entry, em runs an Adaptive sweep using the Start and Stop frequencies, then synthesizes the response at the requested frequencies. Only the frequencies specified in the sweep are returned to the user.
NOTE: If no step size, or number of points is specified for the linear sweep, the Adaptive checkbox is disabled and the analysis is run at the stop and start frequency.
TIP: If you omit the step value and the number of points value in a linear sweep, the circuit is analyzed at two frequencies, the start and stop values.