Fundamentals of

Electric Circuits
Chapter 7

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 Overview
• This chapter examines RC and LC circuits’
reaction to switched sources.
• The circuits are referred to as first order
circuits.
• Three special functions, the unit step, unit
impulse, and unit ramp function are also
introduced.
• Both source free and switched sources are
examined.

2
 First Order Circuits
• A first order circuit is characterized by a first
order differential equation.
• There are two types of first order circuits:
• Resistive capacitive, called RC
• Resistive inductive, called RL
• There are also two ways to excite the
circuits:
• Initial conditions
• Independent sources

3
 Source Free RC Circuit
• A source free RC circuit
occurs when its dc source is
suddenly disconnected.
• The energy stored in the
capacitor is released to the
resistors.
• Consider a series
combination of a resistor
and a initially charged
capacitor as shown:

4
 Source Free RC Circuit-1
• Since the capacitor was initially charged, we
can assume at t=0 the initial voltages is:

• Applying KCL at the top node:

• Or

• This is a first order differential equation.

5
 Source Free RC Circuit-3
• Rearranging the equation and solving both
sides yields:
𝑡
ln 𝑣=− + ln 𝐴
𝑅𝐶
• Where A is the integration constant
• Taking powers of e produces
−𝑡 / 𝑅𝐶
𝑣 ( 𝑡 ) = 𝐴𝑒
• With the initial conditions:

6
 Natural Response
• The result shows that the
voltage response of the RC
circuit is an exponential
decay of the initial voltage.
• Since this is the response
of the circuit without any
external applied voltage or
current, the response is
called the natural
response.

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 Time Constant
• The speed at which the voltage decays can
be characterized by how long it takes the
voltage to drop to 1/e of the initial voltage.
• This is called the time constant and is
represented by .
• By selecting 1/e as the reference voltage:

• The voltage can thus be expressed as:

8
 Time Constant II
• After five time constants
the voltage on the capacitor
is less than one percent.
• After five time constants a
capacitor is considered to
be either fully discharged
or charged
• A circuit with a small time
constant has a fast
response and vice versa.

9
 RC Discharge
• With the voltage known, we can find the
current:

• The power dissipated in the resistor is:

• The energy absorbed by the resistor is:

10
 Source Free RC Circuit
Summary
• The key to working with this type of situation
is:
• Start with the initial voltage across the
capacitor and the time constant.
• With these two items, the voltage as a
function of time can be known.
• From the voltage, the current can be known
by using the resistance and Ohm’s law.
• The resistance of the circuit is often the
Thevenin equivalent resistance.
11
 Source Free RL Circuit
• Now lets consider the series connection of a
resistor and inductor.
• In this case, the value of interest is the
current through the inductor.
• Since the current cannot change
instantaneously, we can determine its value
as a function of time.
• Once again, we will start with an initial
current passing through the inductor.

12
 Source Free RL Circuit-2
• We will take the initial current
to be:

• Applying KVL around the

loop:

• Or:

13
 Source Free RL Circuit-4
• After integration:

• Once again, the natural response is an

exponentially decaying current.
• The time constant in this case is:

• The same principles as the RC circuit apply

here.

14
 Singularity Functions
• Before we consider the response of a circuit
to an external voltage, we need to cover
some important mathematical functions.
• Singularity functions serve as good
approximations to switching on or off a
voltage.
• The three most common singularity
functions are the unit step, unit impulse, and
unit ramp.

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 The Unit Step
• A step function is one that
maintains a constant value
before a certain time and
then changes to another
constant afterwards.
• The prototypical form is zero
before t=0 and one
afterwards.
• See the graph for an
illustration.

16
 The Unit Step-1
• Mathematically, the unit step is expressed
as:

{
𝑢 ( 𝑡 ) = 0 ,𝑡 <0
¿ 1 ,𝑡 > 0
• The switching time may be shifted to by:

𝑢 ( 𝑡 −𝑡 0 ) =
{0 ,𝑡 < 𝑡 0
¿ 1 ,𝑡 >𝑡 0
• Note that this results in a delay in the switch.
• The unit step function is written as u(t)

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 Equivalent Circuit
• The unit step
function has an
equivalent circuit to
represent when it is
used to switch on a
source.
• The equivalent
circuits for a
voltage and current
source are shown.

18
 The Unit Impulse Function
• The derivative of the unit
step function is the unit
impulse function.
• This is expressed as:

• Voltages of this form can

occur during switching
operations.
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 The Unit Ramp Function
• Integration of the unit step
function results in the unit
ramp function:

• Much like the other

functions, the onset of the
ramp may be adjusted.

20
 Step Response of RC Circuit
• When a DC source is
suddenly applied to a RC
circuit, the source can be
modeled as a step function.
• The circuit response is
known as the step response.
• Let’s consider the circuit
shown here.
• We can find the voltage on
the capacitor as a function of
time.
21
Step Response of RC Circuit-1
• We assume an initial voltage of on the
capacitor.
• Applying KCL:

• For this becomes:

• Integrating both sides and introducing initial

conditions finally yields:
𝒗 (𝑡 )=
{ 𝑉 0, 𝑡 < 0
¿ 𝑉 𝑠 + ( 𝑉 0 −𝑉 𝑠 ) 𝑒 −𝑡 /𝜏 , 𝑡 >0

22
Step Response of RC Circuit-2
• This is known as the complete
response, or total response.
• We can consider the response
to be broken into two separate
responses:
• The natural response of the
capacitor or inductor due to
the energy stored in it.
• The second part is the forced
response

23
 Forced Response
• The complete response can be written as:

• Where the nature response is:

• And the forced response is:

• Note that the eventual response of the circuit

is to reach after the natural response decays
to zero.

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 Another Perspective
• Another way to look at the response is to
break it up into the transient response and
the steady state response:

• Where the transient is:

• And the steady state is:

25
Step Response of RL Circuit-1
• Now we can look at the step
response of a RL circuit.
• We will use the transient and
steady state response
approach.
• We know that the transient
response will be an
exponential:

26
Step Response of RL Circuit-2
• After a sufficiently long time, the current will
reach he steady state:

• This yields an overall response of:

• To determine the value of A we need to keep

in mind that the current cannot change
instantaneously.

27
 Step Response of RL Circuit
• Thus we can use the t=0 time to establish A

• The complete response of the circuit is thus:

• Without an initial current, the circuit

response is shown here.

28
 Application: Delay Circuit
• The RC circuit can be used to delay the turn
on of a connected device.
• For example, a neon lamp which only
triggers when a voltage exceeds a specific
value can be delayed using such a circuit.

29
 Delay Circuit II
• When the switch is closed, the capacitor
charges.
• The voltage will rise at a rate determined by:

• Once the voltage reaches 70 volts, the lamp

triggers.
• Once on, the lamp has low resistance and
discharges the capacitor.
• This shuts off the capacitor and starts the
cycle over again.
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