  It is shown that virtually all nonlinear and/or time-varying loads that
generate harmonic current distortion can be characterized in terms of so-called
higher-order circuit elements. The most relevant higher-order elements
exploited in this paper are the memristor, meminductor, and memcapacitor. Such
elements naturally arise by introducing constitutive relationships in terms of
higher-order voltage and current differentials and integrals. Consequently, the
power conditioner necessary to compensate for the load current distortions is
synthesized similarly. The new characterization and compensation synthesis is
applied to the half-wave rectifier and the controlled bridge converter.
