SCHOOL OF SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY

PAN-ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY, IBEJU-LEKKI, LAGOS

PHY 202: ELECTRIC CIRCUITS AND ELECTRONICS
Instructions: Answer any Four (4) Questions. Time: 100 minutes
Question One
Active Elements are components that require an external power source to operate. They can generate or
amplify energy, as well as control the flow of current or voltage. Examples of active elements are transistors,
operational amplifiers, and integrated circuits.
Passive Elements are components that do not require any external power source to operate. They can store or
dissipate energy, but they cannot generate or amplify it. Examples of passive elements are resistors,
capacitors, inductors, and diodes.
Characteristics Conductor Semiconductor Insulator
A conductor is a material that A semiconductor is a material An insulator is a material
Definition allows the flow of charge whose conductivity lies between that does not allow the
when applied with a voltage. conductor & insulator flow of current.
The resistance of a semiconductor Insulator has very high
The resistance of a conductor
Temperature decreases with increases in resistance, but it still
increases with an increase in
Dependence temperature. Thus, it acts as an decreases with
temperature.
insulator at absolute zero. temperature.
They have intermediate
The conductors have very high They have very low
conductivity ((10-7 Ʊ /m to 10-
conductivity (10-7 Ʊ / 13 conductivity (10-13 Ʊ /
Conductivity Ʊ /m), thus they can act as
m); thus, they can conduct m), thus they do not allow
insulator & conductor at different
electrical current easily. current flow.
conditions.
The conduction in conductors The conduction in semiconductor There are no free electrons
Conduction is due to the free electrons in is due to the movement of or holes thus, there is no
metal bonding. electron & holes. conduction.
The band gap in insulator
There is no or low energy The band gap of semiconductor is
is huge (+5 eV), which
gap between the conduction & greater than the conductor but
need an enormous amount
Band gap valance band of a conductor. It smaller than an insulator i.e., 1
of energy like lightning to
does not need extra energy for eV. Their electrons need a little
push electrons into the
the conduction state. energy for conduction state.
conduction band.
Resistivity Low (10-5 Ω/m) Normal (10-5Ω/m to 105 Ω/m) Very High (105 Ω/m)
The coefficient of
It has positive coefficient of
Coefficient of It has negative coefficient of resistivity of an insulator is
resistivity i.e., its resistance
Resistivity resistivity. also negative but it has
increases with temperature
very huge resistance.
Some special conductors turn
into superconductors when The insulator’s resistance
The semiconductors turn into
Absolute Zero supercooled down to absolute increases when cooled
insulator at absolute zero.
zero while other have finite down to absolute zero.
resistance.
Valence Electron 1 Valence electron in outer 8 Valence electron in outer
4 Valence electron in outer shell.
in Outer Shell shell. shell.
Silicon, Germanium, Selenium,
Gold, Copper, Silver, Antimony, Gallium Arsenide Rubber, Glass, Wood, Air,
Examples
Aluminium etc (known as semi-insulator), Boron Mica, Plastic, Paper etc.
etc.
Semiconductors are used every The insulators are used for
The metals like iron & copper
day electronic devices such as cell protection against high
etc. that can conduct electricity
Application phone, computer, solar panel etc voltages & prevention of
are made into wires and cable
as switches, energy converter, electrical short between
for carrying electric current.
amplifiers, etc. cables in circuits.
A Circuit Elements is an idealised mathematical model of a two-terminal electrical device that is completely
characterised by its voltage-current relationship. Examples of circuit elements: resistance, capacitance,
inductance, transformation, and gyration.

Question Two.
Kirchhoff's Current Law: states that the current flowing into a node (or a junction) must be equal to the
current flowing out of it. This is a consequence of charge conservation.
Kirchhoff's Voltage Law: The voltage around a loop equals the sum of every voltage drop in the same loop
for any closed network and equals zero. Put differently, the algebraic sum of every voltage in the loop must be
equal to zero and this property of Kirchhoff's law is called conservation of energy.
 A branch represents the single circuit elements like resistor, capacitor, inductor, voltage, or current
source.
 A node is a point in the circuit where two or more circuit elements (or branches) are connected.
 A loop is a closed path formed by starting at a node, passing through a set of nodes, and returning to
the starting node without passing through any node more than once. Or any closed path in the circuit is
called as a loop.
 A mesh is a closed path in the circuit, which does not contain any other close path inside it.

Question Three
Thevenin's theorem states: that we can replace all the electric circuit, except a load resistor, as an
independent voltage source in series, and the load resistor response will be the same.
Thevenin’s Theorem states: that any complicated network across its load terminals can be substituted by a
voltage source with one resistance in series.
IL
VT
¿ =¿
RT + R L

The Norton's theorem states: that we can replace the electric circuit except the load resistor as a current
source in parallel.
Norton's theorem states: that any two terminal linear networks can be replaced by an equivalent network
consisting of a current source I in parallel with a network of impedance Z o
o

IL
I SC R N
¿ =¿ ¿
RN + RL
¿

A short circuit implies that the two terminals are externally connected with resistance R
¿
0
, the same as an
ideal wire. This means there is zero voltage difference for any current value. (Note that real wires have non-
zero resistance!)
An open circuit implies that the two terminals are points are externally disconnected, which is equivalent to
a resistanceR
¿
∞ This means that zero current can flow between the two terminals, regardless of any
.

voltage difference. (Note that very high voltages can cause arcs of current to flow even over large air or
vacuum gaps!)
The effect of open circuit in a series circuit and a parallel circuit is different. That is, in a series circuit
following symptoms can be observed.
 The total circuit current becomes zero.
 There is no voltage drop across the components which are normal.
 The total supply voltage will appear across the open circuited terminals.
 The terminal voltage of source may measure higher than the normal.
Following are the effects of an open circuit in a parallel circuit −
 The total circuit will decrease.
 The current through the open circuit branch becomes zero, while the operation of the branches without
open circuit will be normal.

Question Four
A Linear Bilateral Network is a circuit or network that exhibits two distinct characteristic behaviours.
Furthermore, these behaviours afford functionality that ordinarily would not be possible due to the limitations
of the two characteristics alone.
Non-Linear Unilateral Network are components that allow the flow of electric current in one direction only
and do not show a linear relation between voltage and current. E.g., diode capacitors, inductors.

Superposition Theorem States: that in any linear, bilateral network where more than one source is present,
the response across any element in the circuit is the sum of the responses obtained from each source
considered separately. In contrast, all other sources are replaced by their internal resistance.
Limitations
 The theorem does not apply to non-linear circuits.
 The requisite of linearity indicates that the superposition theorem is only applicable to determine
voltage and current but not power.
 Power dissipation is a nonlinear function that does not algebraically add to an accurate total when only
one source is considered at a time.
 The application of the superposition theorem requires two or more sources in the circuit.

Question Five
Maximum Power Transfer Theorem States: that to generate maximum external power through a finite
internal resistance (DC network), the resistance of the given load must be equal to the resistance of the
available source.
Maximum Power Transfer Theorem States: that, to obtain maximum external power from a power
source with internal resistance, the resistance of the load must equal the resistance of the source as viewed
from its output terminals.

Question Six
The equivalent two-port network technique consists in replacing a two-port network inserted in each
circuit by another one in which the internal transmission between the two ports is represented by
controlled sources.

Equivalent circuits are used to approximate the experimental impedance data with the above-mentioned
ideal or distributed impedance elements, both arranged in series and/or in parallel.
If a circuit consists of two or more similar passive elements and are connected in exclusively of series type
or parallel type, then we can replace them with a single equivalent passive element. Hence, this circuit is
called as an equivalent circuit.