The Active RC Line: A Family of Negative-Conductance Circuits

A small-signal analysis of a type of active transmission line is presented. This line is in the form of a ladder network having positive resistance in the series branches and voltage-stable negativeconductance devices in the shunt branches. The product of total series resistance and total shunt conductance is shown to be a parameter that describes the transfer properties of lines containing any number of identical sections. A simple stability criterion is presented, and some aspects of input matching and available power gain are discussed. Experimental models have been constructed, whose characteristics support the principal predictions of theory.