Network theorems and complex circuit analysis

[JeffS]

I have found that books on basic electronics (e.g. Bernard Grob's Basic
Electronics)
teach you how to use the network theorems:

1. KVL and KCL
2. Branch current analysis
3. Node Voltage analysis
4. Mesh current analysis
5. Superposition theorem
6. Thevenin's theorem
7. Norton's theorem
8. Millman's theorem

The problem for me is that all the explanations use purely passive
components (resistors,
capacitors, inductors) with either DC (battery) or pure sinewave AC sources.
Are there
any good books with thorough explanations of how to use these theorems with
active
components such as transistors, diodes, etc? Do any books give examples of
how
to analyze complex (multistage) circuits using these techniques?

Regards,
JeffS

 

[Joel Kolstad]

JeffS <jeffste1@verizon.net> wrote:

I have found that books on basic electronics (e.g. Bernard Grob's
Basic Electronics)
teach you how to use the network theorems:
The problem for me is that all the explanations use purely passive
components (resistors,
capacitors, inductors) with either DC (battery) or pure sinewave AC
sources. Are there
any good books with thorough explanations of how to use these theorems
with active
components such as transistors, diodes, etc?

Sure... check out Sedra & Smith, "Microelectronic Circuits." The reason the
books you have emphasize linear network analysis so much is due to the fact
that analyzing circuits with active devices is usually done by linearizing
the device's operating about its basis point... which gets you back to a
linear network.

This is the so-called "small signal model" approach. Analyzing anything
more than small circuits using the full (large signal) equations is rather
challenging (or at least tedious) and is usually left to computer simulation
(which solves the differential equations numerically).

---Joel Kolstad