Electronics Handbook/Circuits/Voltage Divider

Voltage Divider

If two circuit elements are in series, there is a voltage drop across each element, but the current through both must be the same. The voltage at any point in the chain divides according to the resistances. A simple circuit with two (or more) resistors in series with a source is called a voltage divider.

Figure A: Voltage Divider circuit.

Transfer Function of Voltage Divider

Consider the circuit in Figure A. According to KVL the voltage $V_{i n}$ is dropped across resistors $R_{1}$ and $R_{2}$ . If a current i flows through the two series resistors then by Ohm's Law.

i = \frac{V_{i n}}{R_{1} + R_{2}}

.

So

V_{o u t} = i R_{2}

Therefore

V_{o u t} = V_{i n} \frac{R_{2}}{R_{1} + R_{2}}

V_{o u t} = V_{i n} \frac{R_{2}}{R_{1} + R_{2}}

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Electronics Handbook/Circuits/Voltage Divider

Voltage Divider

Transfer Function of Voltage Divider

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