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Passivity (engineering)

Passivity is a property of engineering systems, most commonly encountered in analog electronics and control systems. Typically, analog designers use passivity to refer to incrementally passive components and systems, which are incapable of power gain. In contrast, control systems engineers will use passivity to refer to thermodynamically passive ones, which consume, but do not produce, energy. As such, without context or a qualifier, the term passive is ambiguous.

"Active component" redirects here. For other uses, see Active Component.

An electronic circuit consisting entirely of passive components is called a passive circuit, and has the same properties as a passive component.


If a component is not passive, then it is an active component.

Incremental passivity[edit]

In circuit design, informally, passive components refer to ones that are not capable of power gain; this means they cannot amplify signals. Under this definition, passive components include capacitors, inductors, resistors, diodes, transformers, voltage sources, and current sources.[3] They exclude devices like transistors, vacuum tubes, relays, tunnel diodes, and glow tubes.


To give other terminology, systems for which the small signal model is not passive are sometimes called locally active (e.g. transistors and tunnel diodes). Systems that can generate power about a time-variant unperturbed state are often called parametrically active (e.g. certain types of nonlinear capacitors).[4]


Formally, for a memoryless two-terminal element, this means that the current–voltage characteristic is monotonically increasing. For this reason, control systems and circuit network theorists refer to these devices as locally passive, incrementally passive, increasing, monotone increasing, or monotonic. It is not clear how this definition would be formalized to multiport devices with memory – as a practical matter, circuit designers use this term informally, so it may not be necessary to formalize it.[nb 1][5]

A passive USB to PS/2 adapter consists of wires, and potentially resistors and similar passive (in both the incremental and thermodynamic sense) components. An active USB to PS/2 adapter consists of logic to translate signals (active in the incremental sense)

A passive mixer consists of just resistors (incrementally passive), whereas an active mixer includes components capable of gain (active).

In audio work one can also find both (incrementally) passive and active converters between balanced and unbalanced lines. A passive converter is generally just a transformer along with, of course, the requisite connectors, while an active one typically consists of a differential drive or an instrumentation amplifier.

balun

In some books, devices that exhibit gain or a rectifying function (e.g. ) are considered active. Only resistors, capacitors, inductors, transformers, and gyrators are considered passive.[6][7] [8] United States Patent and Trademark Office is amongst the organisations classing diodes as active devices.[9] This definition is somewhat informal, as diodes can be considered non-linear resistors, and virtually all real-world devices exhibit some non-linearity.

diodes

Sales/product catalogs will often use different informal definitions of this term, as fitting to a particular hierarchies of products being sold. It is not uncommon, for example, to list all silicon devices under "active devices," even if some of those devices are technically passive.

This term is used colloquially in a number of other contexts:

Stability[edit]

Passivity, in most cases, can be used to demonstrate that passive circuits will be stable under specific criteria. This only works if only one of the above definitions of passivity is used – if components from the two are mixed, the systems may be unstable under any criteria. In addition, passive circuits will not necessarily be stable under all stability criteria. For instance, a resonant series LC circuit will have unbounded voltage output for a bounded voltage input, but will be stable in the sense of Lyapunov, and given bounded energy input will have bounded energy output.


Passivity is frequently used in control systems to design stable control systems or to show stability in control systems. This is especially important in the design of large, complex control systems (e.g. stability of airplanes). Passivity is also used in some areas of circuit design, especially filter design.

Guaranteed stability

Scale better to large signals (tens of amperes, hundreds of volts), where active devices are often expensive or impractical

No power supply needed

Often less expensive in discrete designs (unless large coils are required). Active filters tend to be less expensive in integrated designs.

For linear filters, potentially greater linearity depending on components required (it is worth noting that in many cases, active filters allow the use of more linear components; e.g. active components can permit the use of a polypropylene or NP0 ceramic capacitor, while a passive one might require an electrolytic).

A passive filter is a kind of electronic filter that is made only from passive components – in contrast to an active filter, it does not require an external power source (beyond the signal). Since most filters are linear, in most cases, passive filters are composed of just the four basic linear elements – resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transformers. More complex passive filters may involve nonlinear elements, or more complex linear elements, such as transmission lines.


A passive filter has several advantages over an active filter:


They are commonly used in speaker crossover design (due to the moderately large voltages and currents, and the lack of easy access to a power supply), filters in power distribution networks (due to the large voltages and currents), power supply bypassing (due to low cost, and in some cases, power requirements), as well as a variety of discrete and home brew circuits (for low-cost and simplicity). Passive filters are uncommon in monolithic integrated circuit design, where active devices are inexpensive compared to resistors and capacitors, and inductors are prohibitively expensive. Passive filters are still found, however, in hybrid integrated circuits. Indeed, it may be the desire to incorporate a passive filter that leads the designer to use the hybrid format.

Energic and non-energic passive circuit elements[edit]

Passive circuit elements may be divided into energic and non-energic kinds. When current passes through it, an energic passive circuit element converts some of the energy supplied to it into heat. It is dissipative. When current passes through it, a non-energic passive circuit element converts none of the energy supplied to it into heat. It is non-dissipative. Resistors are energic. Ideal capacitors, inductors, transformers, and gyrators are non-energic.[10]