Realization of Piecewise-Linear Driving-Point and Transfer Characteristics by RDS Networks

An RDS network contains positive resistors, ideal diodes, independent voltage sources, and independent current sources. This paper presents conditions which are necessary and sufficient for a driving-point characteristic and a transfer characteristic to be realizable by an RDS two-port terminated in a twoterminal RDS load. The sufficient conditions are established by showing how the desired two-port is constructed. The resulting network is a physically symmetric lattice. Additional necessary and sufficient conditions are found for the two-port to be grounded, and a procedure for realizing characteristics which satisfy these additional conditions is presented. Other network configurations which realize RDS driving-point and transfer functions are then considered. A simple method for determining the number of elements in the various configurations is developed. This number depends on the number and location of the breakpoints in the driving-point, transfer, and load characteristics, and can be determined without synthesizing the network.