All possible gyrator circuits using the minimum number of voltage and curre
nt unity-gain cells are extracted, as a result of generalizing the unity ga
ins, such that a unity gain can be +1 or -1. Since second-generation curren
t conveyors (CCIIs), possessing both voltage and current unity-gain cells,
are very suitable for such gyrators, it is shown that inclusion of the rece
ntly proposed 'inverting second-generation current conveyor' (ICCII) in the
design enables implementation of all types of extracted gyrators. The numb
er of possible gyrator configurations is eight, one of them being the well-
known Sedra-Smith gyrator and another its x-input counterpart; both utilize
only CCIIs. The remaining possible six gyrators are new and utilize ICCIIs
as well. Like the Sedra-Smith gyrator, all the circuits employ a minimum n
umber of passive elements and similar types of active components, namely CC
IIs and/or ICCIIs. The effects of current conveyor non-idealities and paras
itics on important gyrator applications are also investigated. A high perfo
rmance dual-output CMOS ICCII is designed and used in SPICE simulations of
two important gyrator applications in order to verify the theoretical resul
ts. Also, as a design example: an elliptic filter is realized and simulated
.