The perfectly matched layer is a successful concept used in finite differen
ce numerical techniques. It can be also considered as a uniaxial medium who
se tensor material parameters are subject to certain requirements. Here we
demonstrate that such a medium is in principle physically realizable as a c
omposite material with small inclusions, but the inclusions must be active,
which means that they can only be realized as active electronic circuits,
e.g., circuits based on operational amplifiers.