The negative impedance converter (NIC) is a one-port op-amp circuit acting as a negative load which injects energy into circuits in contrast to an ordinary load that consumes energy from them. This is achieved by adding or subtracting excessive varying voltage in series to the voltage drop across an equivalent positive impedance. This reverses the voltage polarity or the current direction of the port and introduces a phase shift of 180° (inversion) between the voltage and the current for any signal generator. The two versions obtained are accordingly a negative impedance converter with voltage inversion (VNIC) and a negative impedance converter with current inversion (INIC). The basic circuit of an INIC and its analysis is shown below.
INIC is a non-inverting amplifier (the op-amp and the voltage divider R1, R2 on the figure) with a resistor (R3) connected between its output and input. The op-amp output voltage is
The current going from the operational amplifier output through resistor toward the source is , and