Hybrid Equivalent Model

A new two-terminal circuit modeling is presented. This equivalent circuit, called Hybrid
equivalent circuit or simply H-model, can replace a Thevenin or a Norton equivalent circuit,
which both are shown to be two special cases of an H-model. The H-model contains both
voltage and current sources and is shown to be very flexible and dynamic. For students in
circuit courses this is only one equivalent circuit to learn with all its properties and applications
rather than two rigid and completely separate ones. The H-model is shown to model a two
terminal circuit more accurately because it carries properties of a current source and a voltage
source simultaneously. This article investigates the application of the H-model in circuit noise
analysis, as well. A nullified H-model (nH-model), as a special case of the H-model, is also
introduced. Application of the nH-models in individually biasing nonlinear components is
investigated. It is shown that using nH-models in circuit biasing minimizes the DC power
dissipation. Finally, the nH-modeling is extended to include multi-port networks and
components such as BJT and MOS transistors. This feature is unique for nH-modeling because
multi-port modeling is not practiced with the Thevenin or Norton equivalent circuits.THEVENIN
and Norton equivalent circuit modeling are two simplification techniques that explain terminal
behavior of a linear circuit. They are crucial for circuit analysis, replacing a terminal port with a
source and impedance [1, 2]. There are often circumstances where one needs to concentrate
only on certain portion of a circuit (for example, the nonlinear port) and use the other linear
portion of the circuit to serve as the signal or power delivering port. Thevenin and Norton
equivalent circuits are ideal to help to achieve this. However, despite their simplicity, there is a
rigidity involved in these representations. These equivalent circuits are, for example, dependent
on the “source” two-terminal section only and not related to the “target” (load) section; which
limits their applications. To show this consider two networks N 1 and N2 connected through a
port J(Vj, Ij), as shown in Fig. 1. The Thevenin or Norton equivalent circuit of N 1 can be found
quite independent of N2. This is normally fine in cases where no constrain is imposed on N 1.
For instance, what happens if the decision is to replace the two-terminal network N 1, with an
equivalent circuit that minimizes the power consumption in the entire circuit? As another
limitation, neither of two equivalent circuits can claim “universality”. For instance, in cases of
very high terminal impedances the Thevenin model fails, and similarly, in cases of very low
terminal impedances the Norton model is not accurate. In addition, the Thevenin or Norton
equivalent circuits can only represent two-terminal (one port) networks. Therefore, for the
cases where two pieces of a circuit are connected through multiple ports the modeling through
either of them fails, unless the ports are separable and each is modeled independently.
Operation of the Device

A hybrid equivalent circuit (H-model) is introduced. The H-model serves as an

alternative to the Thevenin or Norton equivalent circuit for representing a linear two-terminal
network. The H-model, containing both voltage and current sources, is very flexible and
dynamic. It is shown that in the H-model representation the terminal values are more
accurately measured and displayed. This is because an H-model carries properties of both a
current source and a voltage source simultaneously. Application of H-models in noise analysis is
studied. A special case of H-models (nH-models) is introduces and its property for component
biasing is investigated. It is shown that using nH-models in circuit biasing minimizes the DC
power dissipation. Finally, the nH-modeling is extended to include multi-port components such
as the transistors and other circuit components, whereas the Thevenin and Norton models only
respond to linear two-terminal networks.

Possible Application of the Device

The H-model representation can be very helpful in noise analysis, particularly in the
input-referred noise calculations. Consider an amplifier, shown in Fig. 3, with a voltage gain of A
and an input impedance of Rin. Suppose the amplifier is measured with the output noise of Vo.
To calculate the input-referred noise of the amplifier3 one needs to attenuate the output noise
by the gain factor A and then bring it to the input loop of the amplifier. The question is how this
input-referred noise can be represented in the input; as a voltage source or as a current
source? It is shown that [3], it depends on the input source impedance. For an ideal input
current source IS, with a source impedance RS approaching infinity, the input-referred noise
must be a current source to add to the input signal. On the other hand, for an ideal input
voltage source VS, with a source impedance RS = 0, the input-referred noise must be present in
voltage source to add to the input signal. Therefore, only an H-model, works for both options
and can provide a universal and accurate model for the noise calculation, regardless of the
value of R S. Both input-referred noise sources.
Small signal model (hybrid pi model)

The hybrid pi model of a BJT is a small signal model, named after the “”-like equivalent circuit for a
bipolar junction transistor. The model is shown in Figure 5.6.1. It consists of an input impedance, r, an
output impedance r0, and a voltage controlled current source described by the transconductance, gm. In
addition it contains the base-emitter capacitances, the junction capacitance, Cj,BE, and the diffusion
capacitance, Cd,BE, and the base-collector junction capacitance, Cj,BC, also referred to as the Miller
capacitance.

The hybrid-pi model is a popular circuit model used for analyzing the small signal behavior of
bipolar junction and field effect transistors. The model can be quite accurate for low-frequency
circuits and can easily be adapted for higher frequency circuits with the addition of appropriate
inter-electrode capacitances and other parasitic elements. The hybrid-pi model is a linearized
two-port network approximation to the BJT using the small-signal base-emitter voltage vbe and
collector-emitter voltage vce as independent variables, and the small-signal base current ib and
collector current ic as dependent variables.

‘The hybrid-pi model is a linearized two-port network approximation to the BJT using the small-
signal base-emitter voltage vbe and collector-emitter voltage vce as independent variables, and
the small-signal base current ib and collector current ic as dependent variables.[1]

Figure 1: Simplified, low-frequency hybrid-pi BJT model.

A basic, low-frequency hybrid-pi model for the bipolar transistor is shown in figure 1. The
various parameters are as follows.

 is the transconductance in siemens, evaluated in a simple

[2]
model
 where:

 is the quiescent collector current (also called the collector bias or DC collector
current)
 is the thermal voltage, calculated from Boltzmann's constant k, the
charge of an electron q, and the transistor temperature in kelvins, T. At 295 K
(approximately room temperature) VT is about 25 mV (Google calculator).

 in ohms

where:

 is the current gain at low frequencies (commonly called hFE). Here IB is

the Q-point base current. This is a parameter specific to each transistor, and can
be found on a datasheet; β is a function of the choice of collector current.

 is the output resistance due to the Early

effect (VA is the Early voltage).

In order to analyze the AC path of a transistor amplifier it’s convenient to convert the amplifier
circuit into an AC equivalent circuit. There are generally two common BJT small-signal models:
the Hybrid-Pi, and the T model which replace the transistor with a voltage controlled or a current
controlled current source, and a base-emitter diode with dynamic resistance.  Both models are
equivalent and can be used interchangeably, but they are only valid for a small-signal AC with
respect to any DC bias conditions.
The respective model parameters can be calculated from DC bias conditions as follows:

The constant g_m is referred to as the transconductance, and it is essentially the AC gain of the
voltage controlled current source in a small-signal model. As seen from its definition the
transconductance depends on DC collector current, and thermal voltage (V_t = 26.0 mV at room
temperature).

The pi, and emitter resistances are the resistances seen by a small-signal AC. They depend on
alpha, beta, and the transconductance. Also, both models can be used to replace  NPN or PNP
transistors without reversing any polarity.
Transistor Amplifier Design:

In this example we are going to analyze a common emitter amplifier. Keep in mind that the beta
of the transistor widely varies with temperature, and bias conditions. In order to account for any
variations in beta, a voltage divider bias network will be used that is composed of resistors R1
and R2 selected such that they provide enough current to the base, but also don’t draw too much
power from the power supply. The basic design layout is shown as follows:

We are essentially given

and the main goal is find the values of resistors, and the gain of this amplifier, and thus enabling
us to find the voltage amplified at the load.
There are generally two major steps in the calculation process. First we are going to do DC
analysis and determine the values of all resistors, DC voltages and DC currents in the circuit. The
second step will consist of converting the circuit into a hybrid-pi equivalent circuit to perform
AC analysis which will determine the voltage gain, and input, and output resistances as seen by a
small-signal AC source. So let’s begin shall we:

DC Analysis

First we need to make some assumptions and choose a DC operating point. The collector current
can’t be too low as the beta would decrease, and if collector current is too high then too much
power will be dissipated by the transistor. We choose a collector current of

Furthermore, I’ll use recommended operating conditions from Sedra/Smith (see references) that
give a well balanced performance if

but one can change these conditions depending on your design needs.

To get the collector resistance:

implies that

and

Also we know that

and since the beta of the transistor is high

it then follows that

To analyze the voltage divider network we use the rule of thumb that

and so

and

Now at this point, I’m faced with a couple of choices. I don’t have the exact values of 4.0K, 40K,
and 80K resistors. I could combine different resistors in series or parallel to achieve the required
resistance, or use 1% tolerance resistors that would likely come in such values. But instead we’re
just going to use the next closest 5% tolerance values 3.9K, 39K, and 82K. By doing so the
operating point of the amplifier will be shifted, and we will have to recalculate the voltages, and
currents. You could this for practice if you’d like. The most important result will be the collector
current that is to be used in AC analysis next, which now comes out to

the schematic now includes the values of components. The transistor used is PN2222A with
average beta of 250.
AC Analysis

In the AC analysis, we will convert the transistor amplifier circuit into its AC equivalent circuit
by using the hybrid-pi model. And so, we replace the transistor with a dependent current source
and a base-emitter resistance. Next comes the leap of faith – we will ground Vcc because it is
what a small-signal AC would see. It isn’t affected by DC voltage sources. You can think of the
DC power supply voltage source as a capacitor in which the AC signal would pass right through
the positive DC terminal to the ground. It then follows that the original amplifier schematic can
be redrawn to an AC equivalent circuit as shown:
It is evident that it is much simpler than the original circuit, and more intuitive.

Next we can calculate the AC parameters needed by this model,

From the AC equivalent circuit it follows that

and

and so the voltage gain is

Since the load resistance was 1K, we can calculate the gain, and hence v_out

If it follow that  across a 1K load. And just for fun we can

calculate the input and output resistances as seen by the AC
From the AC equivelent circuit it’s evident that

and the output resistance is just the collector resistance, since the current source has infinite
output resistance.

The prototype

The amplifier is built on the breadboard as shown with a resistor pi input attenuator. An
attenuator is used to knock down the output from the HP 3310A function generator to about 10.0
mVpp and still maintain 600 ohm source resistance.  The reason for doing is because the
function generator doesn’t have a built-in attenuator. The source resistance is not that important
in this experiment because the input resistance of the amplifier it about 7.0K. As a result the
amplifier won’t be loading the function generator too much hence:
A close up shot. I’ve use 100 uF bypass capacitors. At 1 KHz the reactance is 1.6 ohms which is
negligible.
And behold, after applying 10.0 mVpp to the input, the output came out to be about 280 mVpp
across 1K resistor just as predicted.

Conclusion

In this tutorial we have shown how to apply a small signal hybrid-pi model to predict the gain of
an amplifier. We could have certainly used the T model, but the hybrid-pi is more convenient in
this case. Once the circuit is converted to its AC equivalent it’s much easier to intuitively
understand the circuit, and design amplifiers, oscillators, and all kinds of neat stuff.