Passive Devices.

Passive devices or components do not generate energy, but can store it or

dissipate it. Passive devices are the main components used in electronics such as resistors,
inductors, capacitors and transformers which together are required to build any electrical or
electronic circuit.

As their name suggests, Passive components are electrical components that do not require any
form of electrical power to operate, unlike “active devices” such as transistors, operational
amplifiers and integrated circuits that require to be powered in some way to make them work.

Being passive, passive devices do not provide gain, amplification or directionality to a circuit
but instead provide attenuation as they always have a gain less than one, unity. Therefore,
passive devices can not generate, oscillate or amplify an electrical signal.

Passive devices can be used individually or connected together within a circuit, either in a series
or in a parallel combination to control complex circuits or signals, produce a phase shift to the
signal or to provide some form of feedback but they can not multiply a signal by more than one
because they have no power gain.

In fact, passive devices consume power within an electrical or electronic circuit as they act like
attenuators unlike active elements that generate or provide power to a circuit.

The component values of passive devices such as resistance in Ohms or capacitance in Farads
are always positive in value (ie, >0) and never negative although some components may have
a negative coefficient.

Passive devices are bi-directional components, that is they can be connected either way around
within a circuit unless they have a specific polarity marking such as electrolytic capacitors. The
polarity of the voltage across them is determined by conventional current flow from the positive
to the negative terminal.

In both electrical circuit theory and circuit analysis passive devices are generally called
electrical elements so let us take a brief look at three of the most common basic passive
electrical elements namely, Resistance, Capacitance and Inductance.
Resistors as Passive Devices

The resistor is a passive component that opposes the flow of electrical current through it. The
amount of opposition to the flow of current is called the resistance of the resistor and is denoted
by the symbol “R“. Resistance is a measure of how easily or how difficult electrons can flow
through a particular path in an electrical circuit and is expressed as a value in units
called Ohms.

One Ohm is the value of resistance that arises when a current of one ampere flows through a
resistor that has one volt across its terminals. Then the resistance of a resistor can be defined
in terms of the voltage drop across the resistor and the current flowing through the resistor as
related by Ohm’s law:

Resistor

Where: R is the resistance, V is the voltage across the resistor, and I is the current flowing
through the resistor. This relationship between the voltage and current called the V-I
relationship in a resistor is linear in both DC and AC circuits.

The power absorbed by a resistor is represented by :

An ideal resistor will dissipate electrical energy without storing it as electric charge or as
magnetic energy.
Inductors as Passive Devices

Inductance which has the symbol “L” and is measured in Henries (H), is the element used for
the storage of energy in the form of an electromagnetic field. Electromagnetic energy is stored
within the turns of a coil as long as a time varying current i(t) keeps flowing through the
inductor.

Self-inductance, L is the property of an inductor which opposes any changes in the current as
defined by the constant of proportionality with the voltage generated in the coil being
proportional to the rate of change of current flowing through it with respect to time.

Inductor

An inductor is another passive device that can store or deliver energy but cannot generate it.
An ideal inductor is lossless, meaning that it can store energy indefinitely as no energy is lost
as heat. Inductors present a low impedance path to DC current and a high impedance path to
AC current.

The impedance of an inductor called inductive reactance varies with frequency and in an ideal
inductor the current of the AC sine wave lags the voltage by 90o.

Then we can define inductance, L as the measure of an inductor’s “resistance” to the change
of current with the larger the value of L, the lower the rate of change of current. Like resistance,
inductance is always a positive value.
Capacitors as Passive Devices

Our final passive device is the capacitor. Unlike the inductor which stores its energy
magnetically, a capacitor stores its energy electrostatically as a charge across its plates. A
capacitor is made up of two or more conducting plates which are separated by a dielectric
material.

Capacitance, “C” is the property of a capacitor which opposes any changes in the voltage across
it as defined by the constant of proportionality as the current flowing through it is proportional
to the rate of change of voltage across it with respect to time.

Capacitor

The capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor is the ratio of the amount of charge, Q stored on
its plates to the voltage, V across its plates and is measured in Farads, symbol (C), ie, C=Q/V.
Capacitors present a low impedance path to AC signals but will block DC.

The impedance of a capacitor called capacitive reactance varies with frequency and in an ideal
capacitor the voltage of the AC sine wave lags the current by 90o. Like resistance, capacitance
is always a positive value.
Passive Circuit Elements

Passive Component Resistance or Phase Angle ( Φ )

Reactance

R=R 0o
current is “in-phase” with
the voltage
ELI
current “lags” voltage
by 90o
ICE
current “leads” voltage
by 90o

Where: XL represents the inductive reactance and XC represents the capacitive reactance of an
AC circuit.