Electrical Engineering basic conceptual question.

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>In the lumped matter discipline for circuits, it is said that the circuit must be smaller in all its dimensions than the wavelength of light at the highest operating frequency of interest.</p>

<p>I don’t quite understand it, even though I understood the similar constraint for a discreet or lumped element, i.e. the timescale be much larger than propagation delays in the element.</p>

<p>Maybe it’s the wording or something. Or maybe my concept is flawed. Anyone care to explain succinctly?</p>

2

<p>The simple first-order linear differential equation model for a real inductor or capacitor is really just a Taylor approximation of a nonlinear function that has higher order terms. Those higher order terms are no longer negligible at higher frequencies or shorter wavelengths.</p>