Solitons in a nonlinear transmission line

This paper discusses how solitons (nonlinear solitary waves) can be realized by electrical currents. The conventional nonlinear transmission line which produces impulse waves can be reduced to the Korteweg-de Vries (K-dV) equation with its solution expressing solitons if the dispersion effect is considered at high frequencies. This nonlinear effect can be produced by capacitance or inductance, or by the discontinuities in the transmission line consisting of lumped-constant elements. Basic experiments are performed on the transmission line using variable capacitance diodes. The results on the decomposition of sinusoidal waves into solitions and the relations among the soliton velocity, width and height show a good agreement with the analysis.