Transient Excitation of First-Order Circuits

1. What is transient excitation and why is it important?

2. What is a first-order circuit?
3. What are “natural response” and “step response”?
4. Transients in RL circuits (briefly)
5. Transients in RC circuits  application to computer circuits
 Types of Circuit Excitation

Linear Time- Linear Time-

Invariant Invariant
Circuit Circuit
Steady-State Excitation OR
(DC Steady-State)
Digital Linear Time-
Linear Time- Pulse Invariant
Source Circuit
Invariant
Circuit
Sinusoidal (Single- Transient Excitation
Frequency) Excitation
AC Steady-State
 First-Order Circuits
• A circuit that contains only sources, resistors and an
inductor is called an RL circuit.
• A circuit that contains only sources, resistors and a
capacitor is called an RC circuit.
• RL and RC circuits are called first-order circuits because
their voltages and currents are described by first-order
differential equations.

R R

+ i + i
vs – L vs – C
 Review (Conceptual)
• Any first-order circuit can be reduced to a
Thévenin (or Norton) equivalent connected to
either a single equivalent inductor or capacitor.
RTh

+
IN RN L VTh – C

– In steady state, an inductor behaves like a short circuit

– In steady state, a capacitor behaves like an open circuit
• The natural response of an RL or RC circuit is its
behavior (i.e., current and voltage) when stored
energy in the inductor or capacitor is released to
the resistive part of the network (containing no
independent sources).

• The step response of an RL or RC circuit is its

behavior when a voltage or current source step is
applied to the circuit, or immediately after a switch
state is changed.
 Natural Response of an RL Circuit
• Consider the following circuit, for which the switch is
closed for t < 0, and then opened at t = 0:

t=0 i +

Io Ro L R v
–
Notation:
0– is used to denote the time just prior to switching
0+ is used to denote the time immediately after switching
• The current flowing in the inductor at t = 0– is Io
 Solving for the Current (t  0)
• For t > 0, the circuit reduces to

i +
Io Ro L R v
–

• Applying KVL to the LR circuit yields first-order D.E.:

• Solution:
 ( R / L )t
i (t )  i (0)e = I0e-(R/L)t
 Solving for the Voltage (t > 0)

i (t )  I o e+ ( R / L ) t

Io Ro L R v
–
• Note that the voltage changes abruptly (step
response):

v (0 )  0
( R / L ) t
for t  0, v(t )  iR  I o Re

 v(0 )  I0R
 Time Constant 
• In the example, we found that
i (t )  I o e  ( R / L ) t and v (t )  I o Re  ( R / L ) t

L (sec)
• Define the time constant  
R
– At t = , the current has reduced to 1/e (~0.37) of its
initial value.
– At t = 5, the current has reduced to less than 1% of
its initial value.
Transient response of RC circuits
and application to computer circuits
driven by binary voltage pulses
 Capacitors and Stored Charge
• So far, we have assumed that electrons keep on moving around and
around a circuit.
• Current doesn’t really “flow through” a capacitor. No electrons can go
through the insulator.
• But, we say that current flows through a capacitor. What we mean is
that positive charge collects on one plate and leaves the other.
• A capacitor stores charge. Theoretically, if we did a KCL surface around
one plate, KCL could fail. But we don’t do that.
• When a capacitor stores charge, it has nonzero voltage. In this case, we
say the capacitor is “charged”. A capacitor with zero voltage has no
charge differential, and we say it is “discharged”.
 Capacitors in circuits
• If you have a circuit with capacitors, you
can use KVL and KCL, nodal analysis, etc.
• The voltage across the capacitor is related
to the current through it by a differential
equation instead of Ohm’s law.

dV
iC
dt
 CAPACITORS
+V 
|(
C
i(t)

capacitance is defined by

dV dV i
iC So 
dt dt C
Charging a Capacitor with a constant current
+ V(t) 
|(
C
i

dV(t) i

dt C
t t
dV(t) i
0 dt dt  0 C dt
voltage

t
i i t
V(t)   dt 
0
C C time
Discharging a Capacitor through a resistor
 V(t) + i

i C R

dV(t) i(t) V(t)

 
dt C RC
This is an elementary differential equation, whose
solution is the exponential:

d t /  1 t / 
V (t )  V0 e  t /
Since: e  e
dt 
 Voltage vs time for an RC
discharge
1.2

Voltage 1

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 1 2 3 4
Time
 Natural Response of an RC Circuit
• Consider the following circuit, for which the switch is closed
for t < 0, and then opened at t = 0:

Ro t=0
+ +
Vo  R
C v
–
Notation:
0– is used to denote the time just prior to switching
0+ is used to denote the time immediately after switching
• The voltage on the capacitor at t = 0– is Vo
 Solving for the Voltage (t  0)
• For t > 0, the circuit reduces to
i
Ro +
+
Vo  C v R
–
• Applying KCL to the RC circuit:

• Solution:
 t / RC
v(t )  v (0)e
 Solving for the Current (t > 0)
i

Ro +
+
Vo  C v R
– v(t )  Vo e  t / RC

i (0 )  0
• Note that the current changes abruptly:
v Vo t / RC
for t  0, i (t )   e
R R
 Vo
 i (0 ) 
R
 Time Constant 

• In the example, we found that

 t / RC Vo t / RC
v(t )  Vo e and i (t )  e
R
(sec)
  RC
• Define the time constant
– At t = , the voltage has reduced to 1/e (~0.37)
of its initial value.
– At t = 5, the voltage has reduced to less than
1% of its initial value.
 RC Circuit Model for a Digital
Logic Circuit
The capacitor is used to model the response of a digital circuit
to a new voltage input:

The digital circuit is modeled by

R
a resistor in series with a capacitor. Vout
+
+
The capacitor cannot Vin
_ C Vout
change its voltage instantly, _
as charges can’t jump instantly
to the other plate, they must go through the circuit!
 RC Circuits Abound in Computers

voltage
We compute with pulses
We send beautiful pulses in
time

But we receive lousy-looking

voltage
pulses at the output

time

Capacitor charging effects are responsible!

Every node in a circuit has natural capacitance, and it is the charging of
these capacitances that limits real circuit performance (speed)
 RC Circuit Model

Every digital circuit has natural resistance and capacitance. In

real life, the resistance and capacitance can be estimated using
characteristics of the materials used and the layout of the
physical device.
R
Vout
The value of R and C
+
for a digital circuit +
Vin C Vout
determine how long it will _
_
take the capacitor to change its
voltage—the gate delay.
 RC Circuit Model
R
With the digital context in Vout
mind, Vin will usually be a +
+
time-varying voltage that Vin C Vout
switches instantaneously _
_
between logic 1 voltage and
logic 0 voltage.
t=0
We often represent this i
switching voltage with a +
switch in the circuit + V =5V
 s Vout
diagram.
–
 Analysis of RC Circuit
R
Vout
• By KVL, +
+
Vin
_ I C Vout
 Vin  RI  Vout  0 _
• Using the capacitor I-V relationship,
dVout
 Vin  RC  Vout  0
dt
• We have a first-order linear differential equation for the
output voltage
 Analysis of RC Circuit
R
Vout
• What does that mean? +
+
Vin
_ I C Vout
• One could solve the _
differential equation to get

 
Vout ( t )  Vin  Vout (0)  Vin e  t /(RC )
 Insight
Vout ( t )  Vin   Vout (0)  Vin  e  t /(RC)
• Vout(t) starts at Vout(0) and goes to Vin asymptotically.
• The difference between the two values decays exponentially.
• The rate of convergence depends on RC. The bigger RC is,
the slower the convergence.
Vout Vout
Vin Vout(0)
bigger RC

Vout(0) Vin
0 0
0 time 0 time
 Time Constant
Vout ( t )  Vin   Vout (0)  Vin  e  t /(RC)
• The value RC is called the time constant.
• After 1 time constant has passed (t = RC), the above works out to:
Vout ( t )  0.63 Vin  0.37 Vout (0)
• So after 1 time constant, Vout(t) has completed 63% of its transition, with
37% left to go.
• After 2 time constants, only 0.372 left to go.

Vout Vout
Vin Vout(0)
.63 V1
.37 Vout(0)
0 0
0  time 0  time
 R
Vout
Transient vs. +
+
Steady-State Vin
_ I C Vout
_

• When Vin does not match up with Vout , due to an abrupt

change in Vin for example, Vout will begin its transient
period where it exponentially decays to the value of Vin.
• After a while, Vout will be close to Vin and be nearly
constant. We call this steady-state.
• In steady state, the current through the capacitor is
(approx) zero. The capacitor behaves like an open
circuit in steady-state.
• Why? I = C dVout/dt, and Vout is constant in steady-state.
 General RC Solution
• Every current or voltage (except the source voltage) in
an RC circuit has the following form:

  
x( t )  x f   x( t 0 )  x f  e ( t  t 0 ) /(RC )
 
• x represents any current or voltage
• t0 is the time when the source voltage switches
• xf is the final (asymptotic) value of the current or voltage
All we need to do is find these values and plug in to solve
for any current or voltage in an RC circuit.
 Solving the RC Circuit
We need the following three ingredients to fill in our equation for
any current or voltage:

• x(t0+) This is the current or voltage of interest just after the

voltage source switches. It is the starting point of our transition,
the initial value.
• xf This is the value that the current or voltage approaches as t
goes to infinity. It is called the final value.
• RC This is the time constant. It determines how fast the current
or voltage transitions between initial and final value.
 Finding the Initial Condition
To find x(t0+), the current or voltage just after the switch, we use the
following essential fact:
Capacitor voltage is continuous; it cannot jump when a switch occurs.
So we can find the capacitor voltage VC(t0+) by finding VC(t0-), the voltage
before switching.
We can assume the capacitor was in steady-state before switching. The
capacitor acts like an open circuit in this case, and it’s not too hard to find
the voltage over this open circuit.

We can then find x(t0+) using VC(t0+) using KVL or the capacitor I-V
relationship. These laws hold for every instant in time.
 Finding the Final Value
To find xf , the asymptotic final value, we assume that the circuit will be in
steady-state as t goes to infinity.
So we assume that the capacitor is acting like an open circuit. We then find the
value of current or voltage we are looking for using this open-circuit
assumption.

Here, we use the circuit after switching along with the open-circuit
assumption.

When we found the initial value, we applied the open-circuit assumption to the
circuit before switching, and found the capacitor voltage which would be
preserved through the switch.
 Finding the Time Constant

It seems easy to find the time constant: it equals RC.

But what if there is more than one resistor or capacitor?

R is the Thevenin equivalent resistance with respect to the

capacitor terminals.
Remove the capacitor and find RTH. It might help to turn off the
voltage source. Use the circuit after switching.
 Natural Response Summary
RL Circuit RC Circuit
i +
L R C v R
–
• Inductor current cannot • Capacitor voltage cannot
change instantaneously change instantaneously
 
i (0 )  i (0 ) 
v (0 )  v (0 )

i (t )  i (0)e t / v(t )  v(0)e t /

L
• time constant   • time constant   RC
R
RC Circuit Transient Analysis Example
The switch is closed for t < 0, and then opened at t = 0.
Find the voltage vc(t) for t ≥ 0.

3 k t=0

i +
+ 2 k
5V  vc 10 F

–
1. Determine the initial voltage vc(0)
 3 k
i +
+ 2 k
5V  vc 10 F

–
2. Determine the final voltage vc(∞)

3. Calculate the time constant 

vc (t )  vc ()   vc (0)  vc () e  t /