Electronic – Poles in electrical engineering

analysiscircuit analysistransfer function

I'm currently an undergraduate electrical engineering student who recently took an elective mathematical course on complex analysis, where we learned about all kinds of singularities for complex numbers, like poles.

This semester, in a circuit analysis course, we are finding the poles of transfer functions, but the concepts don't make sense in my head.

Using an easy example (from Wikipedia), say we have a transfer function of

\$H(s) = \frac{1}{1 + RCs}\$, where they say that the pole is at \$s = -\frac{1}{RC}\$, which, sure, works out at the moment. However, \$s = j\omega\$, so equating the two,

\$-\frac{1}{RC} = j\omega\$

\$\frac{j}{RC} = \omega\$

But now this means that our angular frequency, \$\omega\$, is imaginary, which I thought was not possible due to \$\omega\$ being a real number, as the frequency of a circuit would only be real (please let me know if my assumption is wrong).

So basically, I don't understand how there can possibly be a pole for that transfer function, as we have a constant non-zero real part on the denominator, accompanied by a variable imaginary term, \$j\omega\$. Given that I am assuming that \$\omega\$ can only ever be real, then the denominator can never approach 0, thus not making it a pole.

Have I made an incorrect assumption somewhere, is my understanding flawed, or is there a mismatch between mathematics and electrical engineering in what a "pole" is?

Best Answer

The problem is that you equate \$s\$ with \$j\omega\$, which - in the context of poles and zeros of a transfer function - does not make sense. In general, \$s=\sigma+j\omega\$ is a complex variable, and for the example that you gave the pole \$s_{\infty}=-1/RC\$ is purely real. For a system to be causal and stable (i.e. at least in theory realizable), all poles of the corresponding transfer function must lie in the left half plane of the complex \$s\$-plane.

If you have a transfer function \$H(s)\$ of a stable system, then you can evaluate its frequency response by setting \$s=j\omega\$ to obtain \$H(j\omega)\$. But then you're only talking about the frequency response of the system, and not anymore of poles and zeros of \$H(s)\$. There can be no poles on the imaginary \$j\omega\$ axis if the system is stable. Of course there can be zeros on the imaginary axis. These are the frequencies that are completely suppressed by the system.