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quantities
Guy A. E. Vandenbosch
Citation: American Journal of Physics 81, 676 (2013); doi: 10.1119/1.4812592
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4812592
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/ajp/81/9?ver=pdfcov
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers
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I. INTRODUCTION
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http://aapt.org/ajp
r E jxB;
(1)
(2)
(3)
This means that the line integral of E over any closed loop
the circulation of Eis zero. A vector field, whose circulation is zero can be derived from a scalar function; thus, we
can write
E rU;
(4)
676
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E dC jx B dS 0;
(5)
c
(6)
V. CAPACITIVE COUPLING
with /inc the incident flux due to other circuits, and /self the
flux generated through the loop of the circuit by the current
flowing through the circuit itself. (Note that B in Eq. (5) is
the total magnetic field, which is due both to the current in
the loop itself and to any other nearby currents.)
Using the well-known relation between current and flux,
Eq. (6) becomes
Vs jxLinc Im R jxLself I;
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
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(11)
(12)
(13)
which means that no current flows to the interface. The surface charge distribution at the interface is thus constant in
time, but not necessarily zero. Applying Eq. (10) in combination with Eq. (13) to a conducting wire segment of medium 1, we see that the entire current flowing into this
segment flows out of this segment at the other side. This
means that the current is constant along the length of the
wire. In other words, the charge has no effect on the amplitude of the current in medium 1. One can wonder, what is
the purpose of the charge distribution at the surface? This
question is best answered by considering the simplest possible circuit, a voltage source feeding a resistor (Fig. 3, top).
Here the (surface) charge distribution at the boundary of the
wire has two functions:
These roles of the surface charge have already been studied thoroughly, mainly in the electrostatic case. Interested
readers can find more information in the literature.35
Fig. 3. Principle of capacitive coupling. The charges deposited at the surfaces of the top and bottom conductors (top figure) are modeled by a capacitor
(bottom figure).
Fig. 2. Relation between the two normal components of the electric field.
678
jxe2 r1
E2n ;
jxe1 r1
(14)
678
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(15)
The portion of the current flowing to the surface is determined by the electric field just outside and normal to the segment surface. Integrated over the circumference of the cross
sections and lengths of the top and bottom wire in Fig. 3, this
portion of the current also causes a change of the surface
charges Q and Q on these pieces of wire. In turn, the
change of these charges produces a change of the voltage
drop between the two pieces of wire. Assuming that the two
pieces of wire are still at potentials that are constant over
their volume, but vary now in time in the frequency domain,
this gives rise to the following analysis of the circuit. The
relation between current through R and voltage over R is
IR(t) VR(t)/R. Because the potential on the wires is constant
over their volume, this is also the voltage drop between the
wires, i.e., VR(t) Vs(t). This voltage is linked to a total
charge Q and Q, which takes care of the proper generation of electric field distribution between top and bottom
wires, with CVs(t) Q(t). Differentiating with respect to
time yields
C
dVs t dQt
IC t:
dt
dt
(16)
This last current is the current given in Eq. (15) integrated over the wire surfaces, flowing to or from these
surfaces within the top and bottom wire, respectively. In
fact, this is a violation of Kirchhoffs current law. The
usual way to deal with this is to introduce an additional
lumped element, a capacitor, that accounts for this change
in current (see Fig. 3). In textbooks, the concept of capacitance in many cases is explained starting from the lumped
component capacitor, where the small distance between
the capacitor surfaces results in a very strong concentration
of the capacitive effect at the capacitor. From these textbooks it is hard to grasp the general nature and the deep
physical meaning of the capacitive effect in circuits. The
current in Eq. (16) is thus identical to the current flowing to
a capacitor C. This C is the capacitance between the two
pieces of wire.
It is evident from this line of reasoning that any pair
of two conductors shows this capacitive phenomenon,
not only lumped capacitors. The only difference is the
magnitude of the capacitive couplingin lumped capacitors it is very large; between pieces of wire it is normally
small, as long as we are dealing with sufficiently low frequencies. The fundamental cause of capacitive coupling
is thus the necessary change in Q for a Vs changing in
time, since this Q is responsible for the correct voltage
drop (integrated electric field) between the top and
bottom wires.
It is well known that the value of C depends strongly
on the exact geometry of the top and bottom wires in this
specific simple circuit.
679
(17)
where the coefficients A are uniquely determined by the geometry of the circuit, i.e., the actual sizes and shapes of the connection wires. The fundamental physical interpretation of the
impedance function is that it incorporates the causal wave
behavior of the electromagnetic field coupled back to the input.
It takes time for a signal to reach part of the circuit located farther away in space, to interact there with the local geometry of
the circuit (which depends on the local inductive and capacitive coupling there), and to travel back to the input. For sinusoidal oscillations, the distance relative to the wavelength
changes with frequency. This means that the phase delay of
any response increases with increasing frequency. Thus the
total impedance, which is a consequence of a superposition of
responses, each with its own phase delay in terms of electrical
distance, changes with frequency. In the low-frequency Taylor
series expansion of the impedance, higher order terms become
important with increasing frequency so they must be taken into
account. At dc, only the resistor is important.
We have seen that inductive and capacitive coupling can
be modeled by lumped elements L and C. The question now
is how to place these two elements when we know that the
two types of coupling always occur together. What is the
circuit topology? Is it as in Fig. 4(a) (top), as in Fig. 4(b)
(bottom), or something else?
The input impedances of the two circuits in Fig. 4 are (for
top and bottom, respectively)
Za parallel circuit of
1
and R jxL
jxC
R jxL
;
1 jxCR jxL
(18)
Zb parallel circuit of
1
and R; put in series with jxL
jxC
R
jxL:
1 jxCR
(19)
Guy A. E. Vandenbosch
679
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(22)
(23)
L L2s L2R ;
(24)
C C2s C2R :
(25)
with
(20)
Zb R jxL R2 C x2 RCR2 C :
(21)
As we can see, the first two terms are identical, implying that
inductive and capacitive effects originating from the connection wires in a circuit can be taken into account in circuit
theory to the first order by simply introducing the corresponding global inductor in series and capacitor in parallel,
no matter where they are located. Global here refers to the
total loop of the circuit, and the total capacitance between
the top and bottom wire. If the global inductance and capacitance are correctly introduced, it can be proven that the
correct coefficient A1 is obtained. The proof is beyond the
scope of this paper.
Equations (20) and (21) provide us with a criterion to
judge whether inductive or capacitive coupling is more
important. In the case L=R RC, inductive coupling is
more important; in case L=R RC, capacitive coupling is
more important (in this simple circuit). It is seen that this
criterion depends on the load R, not only on the geometry of
the circuit, which is reflected in L and C. This illustrates a
very well-known fact: in high-impedance circuits, mainly
capacitive coupling has to be taken into accountcoupling
as a consequence of charge distributions; in low-impedance
circuits, mainly inductive coupling has to be taken into
accountcoupling as a consequence of current distributions.
However, as soon as the distributed nature over the connection wires itself starts to be important, this simple correction procedure also degrades. In general, neither of the two
models of Fig. 4 provides the correct second-order term.
Fundamentally they are both wrong. The reason is that the
correct treatment would depend on the exact geometry of the
circuit in space. The actual proof, based on a rigorous vector
field analysis, is very advanced and also beyond the scope of
this paper. However, a revealing glimpse can be given, first
from a mathematical point of view, then from a physical
point of view.
How to obtain the second-order term from a mathematical
point of view? It can be reconstructed by taking into account
explicitly the distributed nature of the inductive and
680
(26)
which is equivalent to
L2R C2s C2R L2s L2R C2s
A2 =R R2 C2 =2
(27)
and
L2R C2R L2s C2s :
(28)
Fig. 5. Models accurate up to second order, in order to model more accurately the distributed character of inductive and capacitive coupling. Top:
with the inductance split in two; bottom: with the capacitor split in two.
Guy A. E. Vandenbosch
680
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mathematical point of view, either the inductor or the capacitor can be split; it is formally always possible to get the
correct second-order behavior.
Now let us ask the interesting question, how is this
splitting linked to the physical geometry of the circuit? The
connection can be illustrated by considering two distinct
geometries, shown in Fig. 6.
For the top circuit in Fig. 6, because the two wires come
very close to each other in the middle, the effect of the
capacitive coupling tends to dominate over the inductive
effect. It is logical to consider Fig. 5(a) as the correct physical model for this situation. In many cases, if the two remaining loops at the left and right of the capacitor are sufficiently
small, the inductive effect can even be completely neglected.
For the bottom circuit in Fig. 6, the wires are far apart in
the middle, making the capacitive coupling small there. The
main contributions to capacitive coupling are found near the
voltage source and the resistor. Also, the larger distance
between the wires automatically increases the loop area. It is
therefore logical to consider Fig. 5(b) as the correct physical
model for this situation.
681
In this paper, the basics of inductive and capacitive coupling have been reviewed in the frequency domain. This is
done from a physical point of view, explaining the nature of
these phenomena, rather than consistently using rigorous
mathematical formulations. It is shown that inductive and
capacitive coupling are distributed phenomena, not necessarily linked to physical lumped components. If not properly
modeled, these effects cause the two basic laws of circuit
theory, Kirchoffs current and voltage laws, to break down at
higher frequencies.
a)
Guy A. E. Vandenbosch
681
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