RLC circuit

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An RLC circuit (also known as a resonant circuit, tuned circuit, or LCR circuit) is an electrical
circuit consisting of a resistor (R), an inductor (L), and a capacitor(C), connected in series or in
parallel. This configuration forms a harmonic oscillator.

Tuned circuits have many applications particularly for oscillating circuits and in radio and
communication engineering. They can be used to select a certain narrow range of frequencies
from the total spectrum of ambient radio waves. For example, AM/FM radios typically use an RLC
circuit to tune a radio frequency. Most commonly a variable capacitor allows you to change the
value of C in the circuit and tune to stations on different frequencies. Other practical designs vary
the inductance L to adjust tuning.

An RLC circuit is called a second-order circuit as any voltage or current in the circuit can be
described by a second-order differential equation for circuit analysis.

Configurations
Every RLC circuit consists of two components: a power source and resonator. There are two
types of power sources – Thévenin and Norton. Likewise, there are two types of resonators –
series LC and parallel LC. As a result, there are four configurations of RLC circuits:

 Series LC with Thévenin power source

 Series LC with Norton power source
 Parallel LC with Thévenin power source
 Parallel LC with Norton power source.

It is relatively easy to show that each of the two series configurations can be transformed into the
other using elementary network transformations – specifically, by transforming the Thévenin
power source to the equivalent Norton power source, or vice versa. Likewise, each of the two
parallel configurations can be transformed into the other using the same network transformations.
Finally, the series/Thévenin and the parallel/Norton configurations are dual circuits of one
another. Likewise, the series/Norton and the parallel/Thévenin configurations are also dual
circuits.
Similarities and differences between series and parallel
circuits
The expressions for the bandwidth in the series and parallel configuration are inverses of each
other. This is particularly useful for determining whether a series or parallel configuration is to be
used for a particular circuit design. However, in circuit analysis, usually the reciprocal of the latter
two variables is used to characterize the system instead. They are known as the resonance
frequency and the Q factor respectively.

Fundamental parameters
There are two fundamental parameters that describe the behavior of RLC circuits: the resonance
frequency and the attenuation (or, alternatively, the damping factor). In addition, other parameters
derived from these first two are discussed below.

Resonance frequency
The undamped resonance frequency of an RLC circuit (in radians per second) is given by

In the more familiar unit hertz (or cycles per second), the resonance frequency becomes

Resonance occurs when the complex impedance ZLC of the LC resonator becomes
zero:

Both of these impedances are functions of angular frequency ω:

Setting the magnitude of the impedance to be zero at ω = ω0 and using j2 =

− 1:

Attenuation
The attenuation α is defined as

for the series RLC circuit, and

for the parallel RLC circuit.

Damping factor
The damping factor ζ is the ratio of the attenuation α to the resonance frequency ω0 :

for a series RLC circuit, and:

for a parallel RLC circuit.

It is sometimes more convenient to use the damping factor, which is dimensionless,

instead of the attenuation factor, which has dimensions of radians per second, to
analyze the properties of a resonant circuit.

Minimizing the attenuation for oscillator circuits

For applications in oscillator circuits, it is generally desirable to make the attenuation (or
equivalently, the damping factor) as small as possible. In practice, this objective requires making
the circuit's resistance R as small as physically possible for a series circuit, or alternatively
increasing R to as much as possible for a parallel circuit. In either case, the RLC circuit becomes
a good approximation to an ideal LC circuit. However, for very low attenuation circuits (high Q-
factor) circuits, issues such as dielectric losses of coils and capacitors can become important.

For applications in band-pass filters, the value of the damping factor is chosen based on the
desired bandwidth of the filter. For a wider bandwidth, a larger value of the damping factor is
required (and vice versa). In practice, this requires adjusting the relative values of the
resistor R and the inductor L in the circuit.
Derived parameters
The derived parameters include bandwidth, Q factor, and damped resonance frequency.

Bandwidth
The RLC circuit may be used as a bandpass or band-stop filter by replacing R with a receiving
device with the same input resistance. In the Series case the bandwidth (in radians per second) is

Alternatively, the bandwidth in hertz is

The bandwidth is a measure of the width of the frequency response at the two half-
power frequencies. As a result, this measure of bandwidth is sometimes called
the full-width at half-power. Since electrical power is proportional to the square of the

circuit voltage (or current), the frequency response will drop to at the half-power
frequencies.

Q factor
The Q factor can be expressed in terms of the three devices in the circuit, from the basis of the
definition:

Damped resonance
Main articles: Damping and Damping ratio

The damped resonance frequency can be expressed in terms of the undamped resonance
frequency and the damping factor. If the circuit is underdamped, meaning

or equivalently

then we can define the damped resonance as

 In an oscillator circuit

or equivalently

As a result

.
Circuit analysis
[edit]Series RLC with Thévenin power source
In this circuit, the three components are all in series with the voltage source.

Series RLC Circuit notations:

V - the voltage of the power source (measured in volts V)

I - the current in the circuit (measured in amperes A)

R - the resistance of the resistor (measured in ohms = V/A);

L - the inductance of the inductor (measured in henrys = H = V·s/A)

C - the capacitance of the capacitor (measured in farads = F = C/V = A·s/V)

q - the charge across the capacitor (measured in coulombs C)

Given the parameters v, R, L, and C, the solution for the charge, q, can be found using Kirchhoff's
voltage law. (KVL) gives

For a time-changing voltage v(t), this becomes

 Using the relationship between charge and current:

The above expression can be expressed in terms of charge across the capacitor:

Dividing by L gives the following second order differential equation:

We now define two key parameters:

and

Substituting these parameters into the differential equation, we

obtain:

or

Frequency domain

The series RLC can be analyzed in the frequency domain using complex impedance relations. If
the voltage source above produces a complex exponential waveform with complex amplitude V(s)
andangular frequency s = σ + iω , KVL can be applied:

where I(s) is the complex current through all components. Solving for I(s):

And rearranging, we have at

Complex admittance
Next, we solve for the complex admittance Y(s):

Finally, we simplify using parameters α and ωo

Notice that this expression for Y(s) is the same as the one we found for the Zero State
Response.

Poles and zeros

The zeros of Y(s) are those values of s such that Y(s) = 0:

and

The poles of Y(s) are those values of s such that . By the quadratic formula,
we find

Notice that the poles of Y(s) are identical to the roots λ1 and λ2 of the characteristic
polynomial.

Sinusoidal steady state

If we now let s = iω....

Considering the magnitude of the above equation:

Next, we find the magnitude of current as a function of ω

If we choose values where R = 1 ohm, C = 1 farad, L = 1 henry, and V = 1.0 volt, then
the graph of magnitude of the current i (in amperes) as a function of ω (in radians per
second) is:
Note that there is a peak at imag(ω) = 1. This is known as the resonance frequency. Solving for
this value, we find:

Parallel RLC circuit

Parallel RLC Circuit notations:

V - the voltage of the power source (measured in volts V)

I - the current in the circuit (measured in amperes A)

R - the resistance of the resistor (measured in ohms = V/A);

L - the inductance of the inductor (measured in henrys = H = V·s/A)

C - the capacitance of the capacitor (measured in farads = F = C/V = A·s/V) The complex admittance of this

circuit is given by adding up the admittances of the components:

 The change from a series arrangement to a parallel arrangement has some very real
consequences for the behaviour. This can be seen by plotting the magnitude of the

current . For comparison with the earlier graph we choose values where R = 1
ohm, C = 1 farad, L = 1 henry, and V = 1.0 volt and ω in radians per second:

The

re is a minimum in the frequency response at the resonance frequency .

A parallel RLC circuit is an example of a band-stop circuit response that can be used as a filter to
block frequencies at the resonance frequency but allow others to pass.