Where does complex impedance come from?
02 May 2019 - tsp
Last update 24 Oct 2022
4 mins
This post describes a simple derivation on where the complex impedance formulas
known from electronics have their origin. The formulas that are going
to be derived are:
- Impedance of a capacitor: $-j * \frac{1}{\omega * C}$
- Impedance of an inductor: $j * \omega * L$
We will also see how to calculate the phase angle as well as the time dependent
behaviour of voltage and current as well as their frequency dependence.
Resistor
The resistor behaves as usual for alternating current as well as for direct
current. The resistance is defined as quotient between voltage and current:
[
Z_R = \frac{U}{I} = R
]
Capacitor
An ideal capacitor is a device that stores a given amount of charge carriers (by
applying Coulombs law) when applying a given electrical potential (i.e. a voltage)
across its terminals. The charges are stores on two isolated layers - in an ideal
model on two plates. The stored charges excert an force against each other and
tend to leave the storage again if the external field doesnβt push them into the
charge device any more.
One defines the capacitance $C$ to be the ratio between stored charge carriers
and applied voltage
[
C=\frac{Q}{U}
]
As one knows a current is the time derivative of the charge carrier count - i.e.
the number of entering and leaving charge carriers inside a control volume:
[
I(t)=\frac{\partial Q}{\partial t}
]
Taking the time derivative of the definition of the capacitance above:
[
\begin{align}
Q = C * U \\
\frac{\partial Q}{\partial t} = \underbrace{\frac{\partial C}{\partial t}}\_{0} * U + C * \frac{\partial U}{\partial t} \\
\underbrace{\frac{\partial Q}{\partial t}}\_{I(t)} = C * \frac{\partial U}{\partial t} \\
I(t) = C * \frac{\partial U(t)}{\partial t}
\end{align}
]
Under ideal conditions the capacitance of a condensator wouldnβt change over time,
under real conditions that may be the case because of mechanical stress, deformation
and other effects like aging, etc. We assume the time derivative of the capacitance
to be zero under ideal conditions though.
To solve that equation we use the traditional periodically oscillating Ansatz:
[
U(t) = U_0 * e^{j * \omega * t}
]
Inserting into the differential equation above:
[
\begin{align}
I(t) = C * \frac{\partial U(t)}{\partial t} \\
I(t) = C * \frac{\partial}{\partial t} * U_0 * e^{j * \omega * t} \\
I(t) = C * j * \omega * U(t)
\end{align}
]
Using the definition of the resistance (or impedance in alternating current case) one
can derive the well known formula:
[
\begin{align}
Z_C = \frac{U(t)}{I(t)} \\
Z_C = \frac{U(t)}{C * j * \omega * U(t)} \\
Z_C = \frac{1}{j * \omega * C} \\
Z_C = \frac{j}{\underbrace{j^2}\_{-1} * \omega * C} \\
Z_C = - j * \frac{1}{\omega * C}
\end{align}
]
Inductance
The derivation for inductance is a little bit more challenging. We know from
Amperes law - or more generally from the Maxwell equations - that the change
of magnetic flux $\phi$ induces an electrical potential as well as that an
electric current induces a magnetic field:
[
\begin{align}
\phi = \int B \text{d}A \\
\oint H \text{d}L = I \\
E = -\frac{\partial \phi}{\partial t}
\end{align}
]
Since we know that voltage is the same as $U = \int E \text{d}s$ we can
conclude, that
[
\begin{align}
U(t) = -\frac{\partial \phi}{\partial t} \\
U(t) = -\frac{\partial}{\partial t} \int B \text{d}A \\
H = \frac{B}{\mu_0} - \underbrace{M}\_{0 \text{in vacuum}} \\
U(t) = - \mu_0 \frac{\partial}{\partial t} \int H * \text{d}A \\
U(t) = - \mu_0 \frac{\partial}{\partial t} \underbrace{\oint H \text{d}L}\_{I} \\
U(t) = L * \frac{\partial I(t)}{\partial t}
\end{align}
]
Using the same approach as above to solve the differential equation we can use
[
\begin{align}
I(t) = I_0 * e^{j * \omega * t} \\
U(t) = L * \frac{\partial I(t)}{\partial t} = L * j * \omega * I(t) \\
Z_L(t) = \frac{U(t)}{I(t)} = \frac{L * j * \omega I(t)}{I(t)} \\
Z_L(t) = j * \omega * L
\end{align}
]
Putting everything together
Putting everything together allows us to specify the total inductance for a combined circuit
as
[
Z = R + j * \left(\omega * L - \frac{1}{\omega * C}\right)
]
As can be seen the ideal capacitance results in a negative complex argument (i.e. an ideal
capacitor without any real valued ohmic resistance leads to a phase angle of $-90^\circ$)
and an ideal inductor to a positive complex argument (i.e. an ideal inductor without any
real values ohmic resistance to a phase angle of $90^\circ$).
This article is tagged: Electronics, Physics