"Impedance & Admittance"

AC steady-state analysis using phasors
allows us to express the relationship
between current and voltage using a
formula that looks likes Ohm’s law:
V = I Z
 Z is called impedance.

In the preceding section, we obtained the voltage-current relations for the three passive elements as,

V = RI, V = jωLI, V =I/jωC

These equations may be written in terms of the ratio of the phasor voltage to the phasor current as,

V/I = R,  V/I = jωL,  V/I = 1/jωC

From these three expressions, we obtain Ohm’s law in phasor form for any type of element as

Z = V/I    or   V = ZI

The impedance Z of a circuit is the ratio of the phasor voltage V to the phasor current I, measured in ohms.

The admittance Y is the reciprocal of impedance, 

measured in siemens (S).

The admittance Y of an element (or a circuit) is the ratio of the phasor current through it to the phasor voltage across it, or

Y   =   1/Z   =   I/V

Some Thoughts on Impedance

• Impedance depends on the frequency ω.

• Impedance is (often) a complex number.

• Impedance allows us to use the same

solution techniques for AC steady state as

we use for DC steady state.