1.

Review of Circuit Theory

Concepts
ECE 65, Winter 2013, F. Najmabadi
Lecture notes: Section 1



Circuit Theory is an Approximation to
Maxwells Electromagnetic Equations
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (2/15)
A circuit is made of a bunch of elements connected with ideal
(i.e., no resistance) wires.
Circuit Theory is an Approximation to Maxwells Electromagnetic
Equations by assuming
o Speed of light is infinite (or dimension of the circuit is much smaller
than wave-length of voltage/current waveforms).
o Electric and magnetic fields are confined within each element:
1) Internal of an element manifests itself as an iv characteristic eq.
2) Elements communicates with each other only through the wires!

Since the rest of the circuit only sees the iv characteristics of an
element, different physical elements with similar iv
characteristics are identical!

Linear circuits have
many desirable properties
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (3/15)
A linear circuit element has a linear iv characteristic equation,
Av + B i + C = 0 (either in time or frequency domain)
If all elements in a circuit are linear, the circuit would be linear and
has many desirable properties (e.g., proportionality and
superposition) which are essential for many functional circuits.
Circuit theory has symbols for ideal linear elements:
o Five two-terminal elements: resistors, capacitors, inductors,
independent voltage and independent current sources
o Four four-terminal elements: controlled voltage and current sources.
It is essential to remember that the above ideal elements are NOT
representative of physical devices. Rather they are representative
of elements with a certain iv characteristic equation.

Practical elements are only approximated by
ideal circuit theory elements
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (4/15)
i
v
i
v
At high enough current, the
resistor burns up
As the current increases,
resistor heats up and its
resistance increases
A Lab resistor can be approximated as an ideal
circuit theory resistor for a range of current or
voltage (identified by its rated maximum power)
Real resistor
Ideal circuit theory elements are NOT
representatives of physical devices!
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (5/15)
Is a symbol for
Is NOT representative
of this
Ideal circuit theory elements are representative of
elements with a certain iv characteristic equation.
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (6/15)
Can be approximated
with this
Can be approximated
with this (for small signals)
In fact, in integrated circuit we usually configure transistors
to act as resistors (to save space among other benefits).
Currents and voltages are circuit variables
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (7/15)
Equations governing the circuits are:
o Internal of each element:
iv characteristic equation of each element: v = f(i)
o How the elements are connected:
KCL: (conservation of charge), and KVL: (topology)
A circuit with N two-terminal element has 2N variables and need
2N equations:
o N iv characteristic equation
o N KCL/KVL
Node-voltage (or mesh current) method reduces the number of
equations to be solved by automatically satisfying all KVLs (or
KCLs).
o Use node-voltage methods unless circuit is very simple!
We will analyze many functional circuits
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (8/15)
Two-terminal Networks





Function is defined by the iv
equation
Two-port Networks






Function is defined by the
transfer function (e.g., v
o
in
terms of v
i
)

If the network only contains linear elements, its function can be characterized
by several parameters (or numbers) instead of an algebraic function
A linear two-terminal network can be
represented by its Thevenin Equivalent
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (9/15)
Thevenin Theorem: If all elements inside a two-terminal network are
linear, the iv equation of the two-terminal network would be linear:
Av + B i + C = 0
o A linear two-terminal network can be modeled with two ideal circuit
theory elements (v
T
= C/A, R
T
= B/A)




o If the two-terminal network does NOT contain an independent source,
v
T
= 0 and it reduces to a resistor.
o See Lecture note for examples of computing/measuring Thevenin
equivalent circuit
i R v v
T T
=
A Functional circuit contains several two-
terminal and two-port networks
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (10/15)
Two-terminal network
containing an
independent source
Two-terminal network
containing NO
independent source
We divide the circuit into building blocks to
simplify analysis and design
Source only sees a load resistor
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (11/15)
A two-terminal network containing NO
independent source
We only need to analyze the response of
a source ONCE with R
L
as a parameter.
For a linear source, we only find the
Thevenin parameters of the source.
Two-port network
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (12/15)
A two-terminal network containing
NO independent source
Transfer function of a two-port network can
be found by solving the above circuit once.
A two-terminal network
containing AN independent source
Accuracy

Mathematical precision is neither possible
nor required in practical systems!

Accuracy (or tolerance) in practical systems
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (14/15)
Measurement Accuracy:
o Measuring instruments have a finite accuracy.
o When a scope with an 2% read a voltage of 1.352 V, it means that the real
voltage is in the range of 1.352 0.02 1.352 (or between 1.325 and 1.379 V).
Component Accuracy:
o Components are manufactured with a finite accuracy (tolerance).
o A 1k resistor with 5% accuracy has a resistance between 0.950 and 1.050k.
Modeling Accuracy
o We approximate practical circuit elements with ideal circuit theory
elements. (we will see this throughout the course for non-linear elements)
Analysis Accuracy:
o We make approximation in the analysis by ignoring terms. (next Slide)
How accuracy affect analysis:
F. Najmabadi, ECE 65, Winter2013, Intro (15/15)
When a number has, A, has a relative accuracy of , it means that
its value is between A (1 ) and A (1 + ).
Alternatively, we are saying that all numbers in that range are
approximately equal to each other.

When we assume a << A, we mean:

) 1 ( ) 1 ( + A B A A B


) 1 ( ) 1 (
A a A
A A a A A A
A a A A A a A




+ +
+ + +
| | | | A a A a <<