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Ideal memcapacitors and meminductors are overunity devices
Dimitri Jeltsema1, Arjan van der Schaft2
1School of Engineering and Automotive, HAN University of Applied Science, P.O. Box 2217, 6802 CE, Arnhem, The Netherlands. d.jeltsema@han.nl.
Abstract:
It is rigorously proved that ideal memcapacitors and meminductors are not passive or cyclo-passive devices. Equivalently, this implies that there exist excitation profiles that allow to extract more energy from the device than it is supplied with; so that their energy conversion efficiency exceeds 100%. This means that ideal memcapacitors and meminductors violate the First Law of thermodynamics, and thus are non-physical as they constitute so-called overunity systems. An illustrative mechanical analogue is provided for which such an excitation profile is explicitly constructed. Hence ideal memcapacitors and meminductors are mathematical artefacts, and the question arises what this implies for the properties of non-ideal memcapacitors and meminductors (or, memcapacitive systems and meminductive systems), which do satisfy the First Law.
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