PASSIVE ELEMENTS, SOURCES AND BASIC THEOREMS

LECTURE COMPANION FOR

19ECE112 ELECTRONIC DEVICES AND CIRCUITS
PART 5 – KIRCHOFF’S LAWS, THEVENIN’S THEOREM,
NORTON’S THEOREM

Department of ECE

Coimbatore

Page 1 of 5 Dr D S Harish Ram ECE, Even Semester 2019-20

For Private Circulation Only
1.1 KIRCHOFF’S CURRENT AND VOLTAGE LAWS
Kirchoff’s Current Law (KCL) states that the algebraic sum of all currents leaving a node is
zero. In other words there cannot be any storage of charge in a node. This is illustrated in
Fig. 1

i2

i1 i3

i4

Fig. 1. Illustration of currents entering a node

Thus according to KCL,

If the analogy of water flow is used, in a pipeline network water does not accumulate at any
junction. The volume of water entering the junction and leaving the junction at any point of
time must be the same. If the node has n branches, this can be generalized as

Kirchoff’s Voltage Law (KVL) states that the algebraic sum of voltages around any closed
path in a circuit is zero. This is analogous to lifting a mass from a point and bringing it all the
way back to the same point. The net energy expenditure is zero.
+ VR1 - + VR3 -
R1 1k R3 1k
-
+ VR2
R2 1k

V1 5
-

Fig. 2. Kirchoff’s voltage law

In Fig. 2, the currents through the resistors are indicated by the arrows. The voltage drops
across each resistor are also marked. According to KVL if we traverse the circuit from the
negative terminal of the battery to the positive, the following will be true

Page 2 of 5 Dr D S Harish Ram ECE, Even Semester 2019-20

For Private Circulation Only
1.2 VOLTAGE AND CURRENT DIVISION

Fig.3. Voltage and Current Division in Resistors

Voltages and currents are distributed in resistive networks in accordance with KCL and KVL.
A voltage V is divided between two series connected resistors as shown in Fig. 3 as follows

Current is divided between two parallel connected resistors as follows

1.3 THEVENIN’S AND NORTON’S THEOREMS

In the study of electronic and electric circuits, there may be a need to analyze the voltage or
current, voltage and power delivered to a single load resistor or impedance in a large circuit.
The circuit may consist of several other components and sources. If we are interested only in
a single resistor or impedance, then it is possible to replace the rest of the circuit with an
independent source and a resistance. Thevenin’s theorem replaces the entire circuit except the
load resistor with an independent voltage source in series with a resistance or impedance.
Norton’s theorem replaces the entire circuit with an equivalent independent current source in
shunt with a resistance or impedance.

The statement of Thevenin’s theorem is as follows (Hayt and Kemmerly[1])

“Given any linear circuit, rearrange it in the form of two networks A and B that are connected
together by two resistanceless conductors. Define a voltage voc as the open-circuit voltage
which would appear across the terminals of A if B were disconnected so that no current is
drawn from A. Then all the currents and voltages in B will remain unchanged if A is killed
(all independent voltage sources and independent current sources in A replaced by short
circuits and open circuits, respectively) and an independent voltage source voc is connected,
with proper polarity, in series with the dead (inactive) A network.”

The statement of the Norton’s theorem is as follows (Hayt and Kemmerly[1])

“Given any linear network, rearrange it in the form of two networks A and B that are
connected together by two resistanceless conductors. Define a current isc as the short-circuit
current which would appear at the terminals of A if B were short-circuited so that no voltage
is provided by A. Then all the voltages and currents in B will remain unchanged if A is killed
(all independent current sources and independent voltage sources in A replaced by open-

Page 3 of 5 Dr D S Harish Ram ECE, Even Semester 2019-20

For Private Circulation Only
circuits and short-circuits, respectively) and an independent current source isc is connected,
with proper polarity, in parallel with the dead (inactive) A network.”

Note that the Norton equivalent can be derived from the Thevenin equivalent and vice versa
by source conversion. Hence it follows that the resistance Rth is also given by .
This is an observation that will come in handy during the analysis of many circuits.

Fig. 1. Two Networks A and B connected by two resistanceless conductors

Typical instances where Thevenin’s and Norton’s theorems are used in electronics include
the effect of connecting different loads to circuits such as amplifiers. The loads may be
passive elements such as resistances or other circuits themselves. The theorems are illustrated
by the following example:

Example
Determine the current through the 1.5K resistor in the circuit in Fig.P1 using Thevenin’s
theorem.

Fig. P1

The 1.5 K resistor is assumed to be the network B while the rest of the circuit forms the
network A which is to be replaced with its Thevenin equivalent. For calculating the Thevenin
voltage, we will first convert the 4 V source in series with the 2K resistor into an equivalent
current source. The circuit with the transformed voltage source is shown in Fig. P2

Fig. P2

Page 4 of 5 Dr D S Harish Ram ECE, Even Semester 2019-20

For Private Circulation Only
The open circuit voltage across the terminals connecting to the 1.5 K resistor can be seen to
be 8 V from Fig. P5. The Thevenin resistance, Rth is the resistance seen across these terminals
of network A with all the internal sources killed (voltage sources short circuited and current
sources open circuited). This is equal to 5 K. The Thevenin’s equivalent of the network A is
shown in Fig. P3.

Fig. P3

The Norton equivalent current is computed as 1.6 mA by shorting the terminals of network A
connecting to network B. The Norton equivalent circuit is realized by connecting the
Thevenin resistance, Rth = 5K in shunt with this source (Fig. P7).

Fig. P7

When the 1.5 K resistor which acts as the network B, is connected to the network A, it is
obvious from the Thevenin’s equivalent that the current is given by .
How will you determine the current through the 1.5 K resistor using Norton’s theorem?

REFERENCES

1. William H Hayt Jr. and Jack E Kemmerly, Engineering Circuit Analysis, International
Student Edition, McGraw Hill, 1971

Page 5 of 5 Dr D S Harish Ram ECE, Even Semester 2019-20

For Private Circulation Only