Kjent for noen, ukjent for mange: Gyrator
The Fifth Element
Unlike capacitors, transistors and resistors, coils are not the best friends of miniaturization. When there’s no room left for a physical inductor, you can always summon the wizardry of electronics and… Simulate it! What’s 100% guaranteed is that the rest of your circuit will never notice the difference!
But how, exactly? Make way for the gyrator. We owe this genius invention to the Dutch electrical engineer Bernard D.H. Tellegen. While studying network theory, he proposed it as the hypothetical fifth linear element (together with the ideal transformer, inductor, capacitor and resistor). The gyrators ability to invert the current/voltage of an electrical component or network means that it can make a capacitive circuit behave inductively. It can therefore use capacitors to replace coils and ideal transformers. Suddenly you now need just three linear elements in any electrical network: the resistor, the capacitor and of course the gyrator itself.
This Sunday, August 30th, will be 25 years since the death of Dr. Tellegen. Fortunately, he lived 90 years and was responsible for many inventions; altogether he held 41 US patents. Among them, in collaboration with Gilles Holst, he developed the pentode no less. This weekend, if you do get the chance to chill, don’t forget to raise a glass to Bernard!
The Fifth Element
Unlike capacitors, transistors and resistors, coils are not the best friends of miniaturization. When there’s no room left for a physical inductor, you can always summon the wizardry of electronics and… Simulate it! What’s 100% guaranteed is that the rest of your circuit will never notice the difference!
But how, exactly? Make way for the gyrator. We owe this genius invention to the Dutch electrical engineer Bernard D.H. Tellegen. While studying network theory, he proposed it as the hypothetical fifth linear element (together with the ideal transformer, inductor, capacitor and resistor). The gyrators ability to invert the current/voltage of an electrical component or network means that it can make a capacitive circuit behave inductively. It can therefore use capacitors to replace coils and ideal transformers. Suddenly you now need just three linear elements in any electrical network: the resistor, the capacitor and of course the gyrator itself.
This Sunday, August 30th, will be 25 years since the death of Dr. Tellegen. Fortunately, he lived 90 years and was responsible for many inventions; altogether he held 41 US patents. Among them, in collaboration with Gilles Holst, he developed the pentode no less. This weekend, if you do get the chance to chill, don’t forget to raise a glass to Bernard!
