Three Essential Laws for Working with Circuits

At the most basic level, analyzing circuits involves calculating the current and voltage for a
particular device. Thats where device and connection equations come in. Device equations
describe the relationship between voltage and current for a specific device. One of the most
important device equations is Ohms law, which relates current (I) and voltage (V) using
resistance (R), where R is a constant: V = IR or I = V/R or R = V/I.
The two connection equations you need to know are Kirchhoffs current law (KCL) and
Kirchhoffs voltage law (KVL):
Kirchhoffs current law: Sum of incoming currents = Sum of outgoing currents at a node
Kirchhoffs voltage law: Sum of voltage rises = Sum of voltage drops around a closed loop
Equivalent Resistance, Capacitance, and Inductance
When analyzing circuits, you can simplify networks consisting of only resistors, capacitors, or
inductors by replacing them with one equivalent device. The following equations show
equivalent series and parallel connections for resistor-only, capacitor-only, and inductor-only
combinations.

WHAT IS NODAL ANALYSIS?

Kirchoff discovered this: the total current entering a node equals the total current leaving a
node! And, these currents can be described by an equation of voltages and conductances. If
you have more than one node, then you get more than one equation describing the same
system (simultaneous equations). The trick now is finding the voltage at each node that satisfies
all of the equations simultaneously.
Circuit Example Heres a simple circuit example.
Another way of stating the KC Law is this: the sum of currents in and out of a node is zero. This
makes writing nodal equations a piece of cake. The two equations for the two circuit nodes look
like this.
Because our mission is to calculate the node voltages, lets reorganize the equations in terms of
V1 and V2.
So here sit V1 and V2 in the middle of two different equations. The trick is finding the values of
V1 and V2 that satisfy both equations. But how?

SOLUTION #1 WORK THE EQUATIONS

Just roll up your sleeves and solve for V1 and V2. Before we begin well make bookkeeping
easy by writing the resistors in terms of total conductance: G11 = 1/R1 + 1/R2, G12 = -1/R2,
G21 = -1/R2 and G22 = 1/R2+1/R3. The system equations now look like this.
First, solve the second equation for V1
Then, stick this into the first equation and solve for V2
Okay, its a little messy, but weve got V2 described by circuit conductances and Is only! After V2
is calculated numerically, stick it back into V1 = G22 V2 / G21 and there you have it, circuit
voltages V1 and V2 that satisfy both system equations.

SOLUTION #2 THE MATRIX

Solution #1 looks reasonable for simple circuits, but what about medium or large circuits? The
bookkeeping of terms spins out of control quickly. Whats needed is a more methodical and
efficient solution: Enter the Matrix. Heres the set of nodal equations written in matrix form.
Or, in terms of total conductances and source currents
Treating each matrix as a variable, you can write
Gv=i
In the matrix world, you can solve for a variable (almost) like any other algebraic equation.
Solving for v you get
v = G-1 i
Where G-1 is the matrix inverse of G. ( 1 / G does not exist in the matrix world.) This equation is
the central mechanism of the SPICE algorithm. Regardless of the analysis AC, DC, or
Transient all components or their effects are cast into the conductance matrix G and the node
voltages are calculated by v = G-1 i , or some equivalent method.

Analysis Methods for Complex Circuits

When dealing with complicated circuits, such as circuits with many loops and many nodes, you
can use a few tricks to simplify the analysis. The following circuit analysis techniques come in
handy when you want to find the voltage or current for a specific device. Theyre also useful
when you have many devices connected in parallel or in series, devices that form loops, or a
number of devices connected to a particular node.

Node-voltage analysis: Nodes are particular points in a circuit. When many devices are

connected to a particular point, you can make this node a reference node and think of it as
having a voltage of 0 V. You then use it as a reference point to measure voltage for a particular
node.
With node-voltage analysis, you find unknown node voltages in a circuit using Kirchhoffs
current law. After finding the node voltages, you use current-voltage (i-v) relationships such as
Ohms law to find device currents and use the node voltages to find device voltages.

Mesh-current analysis: A mesh is a loop with no devices enclosed by the loop, where
the mesh boundaries are those devices that form the loop. Mesh-current analysis lets you find
unknown mesh currents in a circuit using Kirchhoffs voltage law (KVL). Mesh equations are
KVL equations with unknown mesh currents as variables. After finding mesh currents, you use iv relationships to find device voltages.

Superposition: For linear circuits with independent sources, you can use superposition to
find the voltage and current output for a particular device. Superposition involves turning on
sources one at a time while turning off the other sources. You turn off a current source by
replacing it with an open circuit, and you turn off a voltage source by replacing it with a short
circuit. To get the total output, you calculate the algebraic sum of individual contributions due to
each source.

Thvenin/Norton equivalents: Circuit analysis can become tedious when youre trying
different loads with the same source circuit. To save yourself some work, replace the source
circuit with the Thvenin and Norton equivalents. Thvenins theorem says you can replace a
linear network of sources and resistors between two terminals with one independent voltage
source (VT) in series with one resistor (RT), and Nortons theorem says you can replace the
linear network of sources and resistors with one independent current source (IN) in parallel with
one resistor (RN) see the following figure. The equivalent circuits will hold for all loads
(including open and short circuit loads) if they have the same voltage and current relationships
across the terminals.
Finding the Thvenin or Norton equivalent requires calculating the following variables: VT =
VOC, IN = ISC, and RT = RN = VOC/ISC (where T stands for Thvenin, OC stands for an opencircuit load, N stands for Norton, and SC stands for a short circuit load). When you want to
analyze different loads connected in series with the source circuit, the Thvenin equivalent is
useful; when loads are connected in parallel with the source circuit, the Norton equivalent is a
better choice. The two equivalents are related to each other by a source transformation.