Abstract
Some new measures of sensitivity are introduced. The ideal and practical active elements are classified; relations are found among the ideal and also between the ideal and practical active elements. Some new ideal negative impedance converter (NIC) circuits are derived. One voltage inversion NIC (VNIC) and two current inversion NICs (INIC) using operational amplifiers are described. The INICs have a common input and output terminal earthed. The stability and accuracy of the INICs are investigated. The parameters of one INIC are measured and the method of measurement is described. A new configuration is introduced which can be used in RC active network synthesis. In general it uses a voltage-controlled voltage source having a negative gain of order unity and a VNIC or an INIC. Three synthesis procedures are described using the new configuration. Ways are investigated of minimising the coefficient sensitivities and the number of passive elements in the three procedures; the three are compared. Two of the procedures are used to synthesise delay networks. The two realisations are first optimised and then compared both theoretically and experimentally using the new measures of sensitivity. Two of the above procedures are applied to Yanagisawa's configuration. One of the resulting procedures and that of Yanagisawa are used to synthesise delay networks; the sensitivity is minimised and the realisations are compared as above.