1957 IRE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUIT THEORY 321

The Pentode Gyrator*

GERALD E. SHARPEt

HE gyrator is a lossless nonreciprocal coupling

element introduced by Tellegen.’ It is a four-
terminal network element and is shown symboli-
cally in Fig. 1. It may be defined by its admittance
matrix
Fig. l-The ideal gyrator.
Y= .o g
II --cl 0I

where

i, = -gv,. (a) (b)

Fig. a-The ideal transactors.
A realization of this element by means of a passive
construction has been reported;’ Shekel3 has described
-the realization of a three-terminal gyrator by means of 00 00
a triode and negative and positive resistances. A practical
Y= 9 0 --9 0
realization by means of active elements has also been
reported by Bogert.4 00 00
It is the purpose of this paper to illustrate a theory of
-90 90
ideal active elements, which has recently been proposed.
A gyrator will be constructed from four pentodes and it where g is called the transactor transconductance.
will be shown that these are the only elements necessary. The operation of the element is defined by

THEORY < g.v -+ i, (3)

Sharpe’-’ recently proposed a theory of ideal active
elements and he described a gyrator derivation, which
forms the basis of this paper. The elements proposed are
shown symbolically in Fig. 2. They have been called
“ideal active elements” or “transactor” elements for
reasons which will now be explained.
Fig. 2(a) shows the voltage-current transactor. This
element consists of a sensitive voltage branch denoted
by the letter V laid on its side and an insensitive current
branch denoted by the letter C with a bar across. The
element is defined by the admittance matrix
* Manuscript received by the PGCT, July 12, 1957; revised
manuscript received, September 17, 1957.
t British Telecommunications Res. Ltd., Taplow Court, Bucks.,
Eng.
1 B. D. H. Tellegen, “The gyrator, a new electric network ele-
ment,” Philips Res. Rep., vol. 3, pp. 81-101; April, ‘1948.
2 British Patent Specification No. 716,257.
3 J. Shekel, “The gyrator as a three-terminal element,” PROC.
IRE, vol. 41, p. 1015; August, 1953.
4 B. P. Bogert, ‘Some gyrator and impedance converter circuits,”
PROC. IRE, vol. 43, pp. 793-796; July, 1955.
6 G. E. Sharae. “Ideal active elements.” J. IEE. vol. 3,.- D. 33;
January, 1957. - ’
6 G. E. Sharpe, “Transactors,” PROC. IRE, vol. 45, p. 692; May,
1957.
7 G. E. Sharpe, “Ideal active elements,” J. IEE, vol. 3, p. 430;
July, 1957.
where the arrow implies a causal and irreversible electric
to magnetic transfer action. The element has therefore
been called a “transactor” element and is referred to as
a voltage-current transactor (vet). It may also be shown,’
that this element consists only of parts which contribute
to its activity and that it is capable of supplying maximum
power to a stable load. Hence it is also called an “ideal
active” element.
Fig. 2(b) shows a current-voltage transactor (cvt).
Its operation is defined by
ri +v, (4)
where r is the transactor transresistance. The expIana-
tion of the behavior of the cvt is analogous to that given
for the vet.
The vet may be considered to correspond to Percival’s’
“fundamental mathematical element.”
8 G. E. Sharpe, “Ideal active elements,” paper submitted for
publication in PTOC.IEE.
9 W. S. Percival, “On the topology and algebra of linear eIec-
trical Networks.” Ph.D. dissertation, London University, p. 100;
September, 1955.
322 IRE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUIT THEORY
REALIZATION OF VCT
The vet may be realized physically by means of two
cathode-coupled pentodes, as shown in Eg. 3. The
ILHJIIO or “indefinite admittance matrix”” of the con-
nection in Fig. 3 is
0 0; 0
0 0 0 I -g,,
I
0 oj 0 (3
Smz 0
_----___---_--_;-_------
I - gnkz 4
c/ml + gmz Fig. 3-Voltage-current transactor.
0 -gmz 0 1
where the g1 refer to the transconductances of the
pentodes. Node 5 shown in Fig. 3 may be “suppressed”
REALIZATION OF ELECTI&-ELECTRIC
by using a method described by Kron,l’ Shekel,13 and
(DOUBLE-ELECTRIC)‘~ GPRATOR
Percival.14 The matrix is first partitioned as shown in

Yll
Yl,
(5) and can then be written Two vet’s suitably connected in parallel will yield
a structure which behaves like a gyrator, provided the

I I F-21 Yza

where the Y’s are the submatrices corresponding to those

(61 transconductances of t,he vet’s are equal. Such a con-
nection is shown in Fig. 4(a) and it may be mathematically
represented by the addition of the two transactor matrices
in (5). The required 4 X 4 matrix Y is obtained from
Y = Y,, - Y,aY;;Y,l (7)
and gives

Y= 0 92 0 -6%
-91 0 $1 0
= 1 (10)
0 -g2 0 92
[-gml ,o, -gSmz ,Ol 1
1 91 0 -g1 0-l

where gl, g, are the transactor transconductances.

Provided gl = g2 (11)

the device will be IossIess and act as a gyrator.

= (8)
The realization of the vet by means of pentodes has
been discussed. If, therefore, the vet’s of Fig. 4(a) are
replaced by their psntode equivalent, the structure of
Fig. 5 will be obtained.
Condition (11) now becomes:

Matrix 8 may be compared with matrix 2 and repre- gld *gms gmz. gm4
(12)
sents a’ vet having transconductance gln1 + gnl3 = gmz + gm4

where the gm’s refer to the pentodes.

(9) The circuit is now described as an electric-electric
(double-electric) gyrator, because both terminal pairs
are voltage “transacting.” All connections in Fig. 5 are
10W. S. Percival, ibid., p. 115. ac and the pentodes are stipulated to work within the
11J. Shekel,-‘_‘y&age reference node,” Jvireless Eng., vol. 31,
p. 6; January, lYS4. linear parts of their characteristics.
12G. Kron, “Tensor analysis of networks,” John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., New York, N. Y., ch. 10, pp. 2437244; 1939.
13J. Shekel, ?p. cit., p. 1015.
I4 W. S. Pemval, op. cit., pp. 135-138. 16Tellegen, Zoc. cit., pp. 97-98.
 Xharpe: The Pentode Gyrator 323
n n
--- 9_
z== 9-z
I 32it ---
--- q-1 --- 2 I IIbc 2

1-r- -
=

=4e
b
3 ---
=z 9”’ --- 4 3 4
--- y,

Fig. 5-Electric-electric gyrator.

indicate the current-transacting property of the element.

Ideal active elements may be connected so as to supply

-
- 241.
.
(b)
Fig. 4-The gyrator derivation.
A pentode connection such as given by Fig.
however, to be dc supplied: moreover, the grids
tubes must be protected from ht supplies for all
of ac loading. This can be done and a practical
has been described.”
DISCUSSION
The above connection is symbolically shown in Fig.
4(a). The accepted gyrator symbol has been modified to
indicate the voltage-transacting property of an electric-
electric gyrator. The semicircles (letters C) have in fact
been replaced by the letters V laid on side.
Fig. 4(b) shows a magnetic-magnetic gyrator obtained
by connecting two cvt’s in series. The accepted gyrator
symbol has been retained. The semicircles (letters C)
I6 Sharpe, op. cit., p. 431.
power to a system, which indeed has been their main
function hitherto. They may also be connected so as to
dissipate p0wer.l’ This paper has illustrated a gyrator
connection of ideal active elements, in which power is
neither dissipated nor supplied. This form of activity
will be called lossless coupling.
It is well known that the suitable tandem connection
of two gyrators yields a transformer. The gyrator and
transformer can therefore be considered to represent a
lossless active element configuration.
‘Transformers and gyrators2 can, however, be con-
structed solely from passive coupled elements. If now a
gyrator or transformer be placed in a “black box”** with
5 has, only the terminals extruding, all measurements made on
of the the external accessible ‘terminals must be identical,
values whether the gyrator or transformer be passive constructed
circuit or active derived. Thisis stated by the following principle.
A Principle of Equivalence
A lossless coupling network realized with the aid of
ideal active elements is physically equivalent to the same
lossless coupling network realized solely from passive
coupled elements.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper is published by permission of J. Lawton,
Director of Research, British Telecommunications Re-
search Ltd., Taplow Court, Taplow, Bucks., England.
1’ Sharpe, op. cit., p, 692.
I* A “black box” is physically impenetrable without disturbing
its surroundings in any way.