Electrical element

Electrical elements are conceptual

abstractions representing idealized
electrical components, such as resistors,
capacitors, and inductors, used in the
analysis of electrical networks. All
electrical networks can be analyzed as
multiple electrical elements
interconnected by wires. Where the
elements roughly correspond to real
components the representation can be in
the form of a schematic diagram or
circuit diagram. This is called a lumped
element circuit model. In other cases
infinitesimal elements are used to model
the network in a distributed element
model.

These ideal electrical elements represent

real, physical electrical or electronic
components but they do not exist
physically and they are assumed to have
ideal properties, while actual electrical
components have less than ideal
properties, a degree of uncertainty in
their values and some degree of
nonlinearity. To model the nonideal
behavior of a real circuit component may
require a combination of multiple ideal
electrical elements in order to
approximate its function. For example, an
inductor circuit element is assumed to
have inductance but no resistance or
capacitance, while a real inductor, a coil
of wire, has some resistance in addition
to its inductance. This may be modeled
by an ideal inductance element in series
with a resistance.

Circuit analysis using electric elements is

useful for understanding many practical
electrical networks using components.
By analyzing the way a network is
affected by its individual elements it is
possible to estimate how a real network
will behave.
Types
Circuit elements can be classified into
different categories. One is how many
terminals they have to connect them to
other components:

One-port elements – these represent

the simplest components, that have
only two terminals to connect to.
Examples are resistances,
capacitances, inductances, and
diodes.
Multiport elements – these have more
than two terminals. They connect to
the external circuit through multiple
pairs of terminals called ports. For
 example, a transformer with three
separate windings has six terminals
and could be idealized as a three-port
element; the ends of each winding are
connected to a pair of terminals which
represent a port.
Two-port elements – these are the
most common multiport
elements, which have four
terminals consisting of two ports.

Elements can also be divided into active

and passive:

Active elements or sources – these are

elements which can source electrical
power; examples are voltage sources
and current sources. They can be used
to represent ideal batteries and power
supplies.
Dependent sources – These are
two-port elements with a voltage
or current source which is
proportional to the voltage or
current at a second pair of
terminals. These are used in the
modelling of amplifying
components such as transistors,
vacuum tubes, and op-amps.
Passive elements – These are
elements which do not have a source
of energy, examples are diodes,
resistances, capacitances, and
inductances.
Another distinction is between linear and
nonlinear:

Linear elements – these are elements

in which the constituent relation, the
relation between voltage and current,
is a linear function. They obey the
superposition principle. Examples of
linear elements are resistances,
capacitances, inductances, and linear
dependent sources. Circuits with only
linear elements, linear circuits, do not
cause intermodulation distortion, and
can be easily analysed with powerful
mathematical techniques such as the
Laplace transform.
 Nonlinear elements – these are
elements in which the relation between
voltage and current is a nonlinear
function. An example is a diode, in
which the current is an exponential
function of the voltage. Circuits with
nonlinear elements are harder to
analyse and design, often requiring
circuit simulation computer programs
such as SPICE.

Standard elements
Most electrical components and circuits
can be modeled using nine standard
elements, five passive and four active.
Each element is defined by a relation
between the state variables of the
network: current, ; voltage, , charge,
; and magnetic flux, .

Two sources:
Current sources, measured in
amperes – produces a current in a
conductor. Affects charge
according to the relation
.
Voltage sources, measured in
volts – produces a potential
difference between two points.
Affects magnetic flux according to
the relation .
in this relationship does not
necessarily represent anything
physically meaningful. In the case of
the current generator, , the time
integral of current, represents the
quantity of electric charge physically
delivered by the generator. Here is
the time integral of voltage but
whether or not that represents a
physical quantity depends on the
nature of the voltage source. For a
voltage generated by magnetic
induction it is meaningful, but for an
electrochemical source, or a voltage
that is the output of another circuit,
no physical meaning is attached to
it.
Both these elements are necessarily
non-linear elements. See #Non-linear
elements below.
Three passive elements: (In 2008 a
fourth passive element, the memristor,
was created in a lab, but it is not yet
found in most circuits.)
Resistors, with resistance
measured in ohms – produces a
voltage proportional to the current
flowing through the element.
Relates voltage and current
according to the relation
.
Capacitors, with capacitance
measured in farads – produces a
current proportional to the rate of
change of voltage across the
element. Relates charge and
voltage according to the relation
 .
Inductors, with inductance
measured in henries – produces
the magnetic flux proportional to
the rate of change of current
through the element. Relates flux
and current according to the
relation .
Four two-port.active elements:
Voltage-controlled voltage
sources (VCVS) – Generates a
voltage based on another voltage
with respect to a specified gain.
(has infinite input impedance and
zero output impedance).
Voltage-controlled current sources
(VCCS) – Generates a current
based on a voltage elsewhere in
the circuit, with respect to a
specified gain, used to model field-
effect transistors and vacuum
tubes (has infinite input
impedance and infinite output
impedance). The gain is
characterised by a transfer
conductance which will have units
of siemens.
Current-controlled voltage sources
(CCVS) – Generates a voltage
based on an input current
elsewhere in the circuit with
respect to a specified gain. (has
 zero input impedance and zero
output impedance). The gain is
characterised by a transfer
impedance which will have units
of ohms.
Current-controlled current sources
(CCCS) – Generates a current
based on an input current and a
specified gain. Used to model
bipolar junction transistors. (Has
zero input impedance and infinite
output impedance).

Linear approximations and

non-linear elements
Conceptual symmetries of resistor, capacitor,
inductor, and memristor.

A nonlinear element or in a circuit does

not have a linear relationship between its
circuit variables. Examples include
diodes, are transistors and other
semiconductor devices, vacuum tubes,
and iron core inductors and transformers
when operated above their saturation
current. Independent voltage and
independent current sources can be
considered non-linear resistors.[1]
While linear circuits are easy to model
and analyze, their linearity is an
approximation that only holds over a
certain range of input. Elements that
operate linearly at low signal levels often
show nonlinearity at higher levels. For
instance in many audio systems, turning
the volume up can make amplifying
elements operate nonlinearly, distorting
the sound. 

In the more general case: resistance is

some function of voltage and current;
capacitance some function of voltage
and charge; and inductance some
function of current and flux.[1] Following
this pattern, memristance was
hypothesized to be a physical property
that was some function of flux and
charge.

Property General relation Linear approximation

Resistance

Capacitance

Inductance

Memristance

The memristor was proposed by Leon

Chua in a 1971 paper, and its definition
remains somewhat controversial. A
physical component demonstrating
memristance was first created in 2008,
by a team at HP Labs led by scientist R.
Stanley Williams.[2][3][4][5]

There are also two special non-linear

elements, the nullator and norator, which
are sometimes used in analysis but are
not the ideal counterpart of any real
component. These are sometimes used
in models of components with more than
two terminals, such as transistors.[1]

Nullator: defined as
Norator: defined as an element which
places no restrictions on voltage and
current whatsoever.

Linearizing a nonlinear element

Nonlinear elements can be made to

operate linearly if the signal in them is
limited to a low level. If the input of a
non-linear device such as a transistor
only varies in a small range around a
fixed value, then the input/output relation
is linearized around this fixed value
(usually called the quiescent point, Q-
point, or bias point). This is called a small
signal model. 

Other two-port elements

All the above are two-terminal, or one-
port, elements with the exception of the
dependent sources. There are two
lossless, passive, linear two-port
elements that are normally introduced
into network analysis. Their constitutive
relations in matrix notation are;

Transformer
 Gyrator

The transformer maps a voltage at one

port to a voltage at the other in a ratio of
n. The current between the same two
port is mapped by 1/n. The gyrator, on
the other hand, maps a voltage at one
port to a current at the other. Likewise,
currents are mapped to voltages. The
quantity r in the matrix is in units of
resistance. The gyrator is a necessary
element in analysis because it is not
reciprocal. Networks built from the basic
linear elements only are obliged to be
reciprocal and so cannot be used by
themselves to represent a non-reciprocal
system. It is not essential, however, to
have both the transformer and gyrator.
Two gyrators in cascade are equivalent
to a transformer but the transformer is
usually retained for convenience.
Introduction of the gyrator also makes
either capacitance or inductance non-
essential since a gyrator terminated with
one of these at port 2 will be equivalent
to the other at port 1. However,
transformer, capacitance and inductance
are normally retained in analysis because
they are the ideal properties of the basic
physical components transformer,
inductor and capacitor whereas a
practical gyrator must be constructed as
an active circuit.[6][7][8]

Examples
The following are examples of
representation of components by way of
electrical elements.

On a first degree of approximation, a

battery is represented by a voltage
source. A more refined model also
includes a resistance in series with the
voltage source, to represent the
battery's internal resistance (which
results in the battery heating and the
voltage dropping when in use). A
current source in parallel may be
added to represent its leakage (which
discharges the battery over a long
period of time).
On a first degree of approximation, a
resistor is represented by a resistance.
A more refined model also includes a
series inductance, to represent the
effects of its lead inductance
(resistors constructed as a spiral have
more significant inductance). A
capacitance in parallel may be added
to represent the capacitive effect of
the proximity of the resistor leads to
each other. A wire can be represented
as a low-value resistor
 Current sources are more often used
when representing semiconductors.
For example, on a first degree of
approximation, a bipolar transistor may
be represented by a variable current
source that is controlled by the input
current.

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to Electrical circuits.

Transmission line
Electrical circuit
Electrical component

External links
 Understanding Electronic
Components

References
1. Ljiljana Trajković, "Nonlinear circuits",
The Electrical Engineering Handbook (Ed:
Wai-Kai Chen), pp.75–77, Academic Press,
2005 ISBN 0-12-170960-4
2. Strukov, Dmitri B; Snider, Gregory S;
Stewart, Duncan R; Williams, Stanley R
(2008), "The missing memristor found" ,
Nature, 453 (7191): 80–83,
Bibcode:2008Natur.453...80S ,
doi:10.1038/nature06932 ,
PMID 18451858
3. EETimes, 30 April 2008, 'Missing link'
memristor created , EETimes, 30 April
2008
4. Engineers find 'missing link' of
electronics – 30 April 2008
5. Researchers Prove Existence of New
Basic Element for Electronic Circuits –
'Memristor' – 30 April 2008
6. Wadhwa, C.L., Network analysis and
synthesis, pp.17–22, New Age
International, ISBN 81-224-1753-1.
7. Herbert J. Carlin, Pier Paolo Civalleri,
Wideband circuit design, pp.171–172, CRC
Press, 1998 ISBN 0-8493-7897-4.
8. Vjekoslav Damić, John Montgomery,
Mechatronics by bond graphs: an object-
oriented approach to modelling and
simulation, pp.32–33, Springer, 2003
ISBN 3-540-42375-3.

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