Second Law based definition of passivity/activity of devices

Sundqvist, K. M.; Ferry, D. K.; Kish, László B.

doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2017.08.039

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The violation of the Second Law due to assuming passivity of the memristors and the validity of Equations 1-5 goes much beyond the case of linear memristors. Both from the above considerations and from [4] it is obvious, that assuming a thermal noise-free memristor, as Equations 1-6 do, will break the Second Law whenever the memristor function describes a dissipative device. Then, similarly to the linear case above, connecting a resistor parallel to the memristor will transfer non-zero net thermal noise power to the memristor from the resistor.…”

Section: The Case Of Nonlinear Memristorsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The question of passivity/activity is a physical problem and former engineering definitions of this matter were shown self-contradictory and unphysical at certain practical conditions where they lead to perpetual motion machines [4]. Therefore, we will use the most advanced, statistical-thermodynamic definition of passivity/activity based on statistical physics that works correctly even with thermal noise (the quoted text below is from [4]):…”

Section: On Chua's Memristor Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, both the memristor and the resistor are at the same temperature T therefore a non-zero power flow violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics unless there is an external energy source that supplies this power. The physical conclusion is [4], that a memristor described by Equation 6 must be an active device.…”

Section: The Case Of Linear Memristorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We gave a proof of Brilluoin's paradox in [4] by showing that putting a large number N of circuits shown in Figure 3 into a series circuitry results in an unbounded available power proportional to N due to the DC components that are always positively correlated. In conclusion, any passive circuitry that can rectify thermal noise, even in the slightest way, in unphysical because it breaks the Second Law.…”

Section: The Case Of Nonlinear Memristorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Memristor Equations: Incomplete Physics and Undefined Passivity/Activity

2017

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Abstract. In his seminal paper, Chua presented a fundamental physical claim by introducing the memristor, "The missing circuit element". The memristor equations were originally supposed to represent a passive circuit element because, with active circuitry, arbitrary elements can be realized without limitations. Therefore, if the memristor equations do not guarantee that the circuit element can be realized by a passive system, the fundamental physics claim about the memristor as "missing circuit element" loses all its weight. The question of passivity/activity belongs to physics thus we incorporate thermodynamics into the study of this problem. We show that the memristor equations are physically incomplete regarding the problem of passivity/activity. As a consequence, the claim that the present memristor functions describe a passive device lead to unphysical results, such as violating the Second Law of thermodynamics, in infinitely large number of cases. The seminal memristor equations cannot introduce a new physical circuit element without making the model more physical such as providing the Fluctuation Dissipation Theory of memristors.

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Section: The Case Of Nonlinear Memristorsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: On Chua's Memristor Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Case Of Linear Memristorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Case Of Nonlinear Memristorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Memristor Equations: Incomplete Physics and Undefined Passivity/Activity

2017

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“…When the circuitry in Figure 1 is in thermal equilibrium, the net power flow between two resistors is zero as implied by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Conversely, at a fixed ambient temperature, in thermal equilibrium, the thermal noise of a resistor cannot be reduced without incorporating an active device [5] that will dissipate enough to avoid Second Law violation. When such resistor is kept at the same temperature as its environment, it would act as a cooler: it would extract heat from the circuitry it is connected to.…”

Section: Thermal Noise In Resistors and The Second Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does a Standalone, “Cold” (Low-Thermal-Noise), Linear Resistor Exist Without Cooling?

Song

Kish

2018

Fluct. Noise Lett.

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Classical ways of cooling require some of these elements: phase transition, compressor, nonlinearity, valve, and/or switch. A recent example is the 2018 patent of Linear Technology Corporation; they utilize the shot noise of a diode to produce a standalone nonlinear resistor that has T/2 noise temperature (about 150 Kelvin). While such "resistor" can cool its environment when it is AC coupled to a resistor, the thermally cooling effect is only academically interesting. The importance of the invention is of another nature: In low-noise electronics, it is essential to have resistors with low noise temperature to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. A natural question is raised: can we use a linear system with feedback to cool and, most importantly, to show reduced noise temperature? Exploring this problem, were able to produce standalone linear resistors showing strongly reduced thermal noise. Our must successful test shows T/100 (about 3 Kelvin) noise temperature, as if the resistor would have been immersed in liquid helium. We also found that there is an old solution offering similar results utilizing the virtual ground of an inverting amplifier at negative feedback. There the "cold resistor is generated at the input of an amplifier. On the other hand, our system generates the "cold" resistance at the output, which can have practical advantages.

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The case for rejecting the memristor as a fundamental circuit element

Abraham¹

2018

Sci Rep

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The memory resistor with the moniker memristor was a harmless postulate in 1971. Since 2008 a device that claims to be the memristor is on the prowl, seeking recognition as a fundamental circuit element, sometimes wanting electronics textbooks to be rewritten, always promising remarkable digital, analog and neuromorphic computing possibilities. A systematic discussion about the fundamental nature of the device is almost absent within the memristor community. Advocates use incomplete constitutive relationships, ignore concepts of activity/passivity and aver that nonlinearity is central to their case. Few researchers have examined these claims. Our report investigates the assertion that the memristor is a fundamental passive circuit element, from the fresh perspective that electrical engineering is the science of charge management. We demonstrate with a periodic table of fundamental elements that the 2008 memristor is not the 1971 postulate and neither of them is fundamental. The ideal memristor is an unphysical active device and any physically realizable memristor is a nonlinear composition of resistors with active hysteresis. We also show that there exists only three fundamental passive circuit elements.

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Second Law based definition of passivity/activity of devices

Cited by 10 publications

References 8 publications

Memristor Equations: Incomplete Physics and Undefined Passivity/Activity

Memristor Equations: Incomplete Physics and Undefined Passivity/Activity

Does a Standalone, “Cold” (Low-Thermal-Noise), Linear Resistor Exist Without Cooling?

The case for rejecting the memristor as a fundamental circuit element

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