Southpark:
Active means requires a power source (aside from being driven by an input signal), right? The power source might be for powering whatever circuits or devices for the switch system to operate.
Yeah, I was hunting for a word that would encompass all types of "switch" that are really just analog devices made to emulate an ideal switch. Maybe "active" is not the correct word. Mainly a word that would as broadly as possible, intersect the set of devices such as bipolar transistors, MOSFETs, even switching diodes. So, I wasn't really referring to a system, just a device.
And, come to think of it, not even a mechanical switch is really an ideal switch. Place a high enough voltage across it, when open, and ZAP, it's no longer open [at least during the event]. And, even when it's closed, run a high enough current through it, and it will melt into something altogether different.
It seems to me, there is no such thing as a true switch. Everything is just an approximation.