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How these circuit diagrams in the datasheet was made?

goodarz kashian
Intellectual 645 points

Hi everybody

Sorry my post may be not relevant to the group !

I've seen so many IC datasheets, and so appreciate the elegant reference circuit diagrams they've made. I'm not meaning the 'function' of the circuit, but the 'beautiful' schematics itself, such as below.

enter image description here

This picture is copied from TI's datasheet. I love it's style. I know there are so many software can draw schematic, but i've never seen any software can done this, particularly the comment style.

If someone know how to draw this, or what software can generate such schematic for documentation.

I know there are some Latex libraries are able to generate schematic, but this kind of schematic drawing is really clear and beautiful.

They always can add more 'comments' and make the circuit more clear, so i want to know if there is such tools not only can draw schematics but can also add more 'powerful' comments and annotations.

  • 0
    Prodigy 5 points
    Hello Goodarz,

    There have been many schematic capture systems used at TI over the years.
    Back in the 80's it was almost all done by hand.
    Schematic capture graphics is combined with text and edited when put in documents.

    Judging by the looks of this one it is several decades old.
    All TI documents should have a date in the upper right corner.
    Sometimes there are 2 dates, the origination date and date of last revision.

    Your picture came from; www.ti.com/.../snoa665c.pdf
    AN-263 Sine Wave Generation Techniques
    SNOA665C–October 1999–Revised April 2013

    TI does not keep detailed records of programs used to create drawings.
    This schematic is very pleasing, I agree, but we have no way of determining its origin.

    Created in 1999, 18 years ago, things have advanced much since then.
    Sometimes we lose the “art” of the past with "advancements" of the future.
  • 0 in reply to Ed Walker
    Intellectual 645 points

    Thanks Ed for your reply,

    Yes true, it seems to be an old schematic, but it was only a sample picture. Do you know what software is being used at the moment ?

    Since the schematics in the datasheets (even the new ones) do not look like any of the schematic software as  I know. (like Altium or Mentor) 

  • 0 in reply to goodarz kashian
    Prodigy 5 points
    Goodarz, TI has been using ALTIUM for the past few years. Mentor and PCAD were used many years ago. But like I said, the schematics are sent to our Technical Publications team where it is then massaged to get the "TI LOOK". This is done with scope shots, pictures, schematics, etc. So you really can not tell what was used to create the schematic because they all look basically the same when put into TI documents.
  • 0 in reply to Ed Walker
    Intellectual 645 points
    Thank you very much Ed

    Goodarz
  • 0 in reply to goodarz kashian
    TI__Guru**** 175091 points
    Hi goodarz,

    Just to add some additional commentary, the 'pretty schematics' found in some documentation are often created with an actual graphics program such as AutoCAD, Visio or Corel Designer. There are often limitations in the actual schematic capture programs (like Altium, Mentor, PADs, etc) that won't let you do pretty things. It takes more time to re-draw the schematic, but you've got a lot more flexibility.