The stability and boundedness theories are developed for impulsive differential equations with time delay. Definitions, notations and fundamental theory are presented for delay differential systems with both fixed and state-dependent impulses. It is usually more difficult to investigate the qualitative properties of systems with state-dependent impulses since different solutions have different moments of impulses. In this thesis, the stability problems of nontrivial solutions of systems with state-dependent impulses are ``transferred" to those of the trivial solution of systems with fixed impulses by constructing the so-called ``reduced system". Therefore, it is enough to investigate the stability problems of systems with fixed impulses. The exponential stability problem is then discussed for the system with fixed impulses. A variety of stability criteria are obtained and`numerical examples are worked out to illustrate the results, which shows that impulses do contribute to the stabilization of some delay differential equations. To unify various stability concepts and to offer a general framework for the investigation of stability theory, the concept of stability in terms of two measures is introduced and then several stability criteria are developed for impulsive delay differential equations by both the single and multiple Lyapunov functions method. Furthermore, boundedness and periodicity results are discussed for impulsive differential systems with time delay. The Lyapunov-Razumikhin technique, the Lyapunov functional method, differential inequalities, the method of variation of parameters, and the partitioned matrix method are the main tools to obtain these results. Finally, the application of the stability theory to neural networks is presented. In applications, the impulses are considered as either means of impulsive control or perturbations.Sufficient conditions for stability and stabilization of neural networks are obtained.

The stability and boundedness theories are developed for impulsive differential equations with time delay. Definitions, notations and fundamental theory are presented for delay differential systems with both fixed and state-dependent impulses. It is usually more difficult to investigate the qualitative properties of systems with state-dependent impulses since different solutions have different moments of impulses. In this thesis, the stability problems of nontrivial solutions of systems with state-dependent impulses are ``transferred" to those of the trivial solution of systems with fixed impulses by constructing the so-called ``reduced system". Therefore, it is enough to investigate the stability problems of systems with fixed impulses. The exponential stability problem is then discussed for the system with fixed impulses. A variety of stability criteria are obtained and`numerical examples are worked out to illustrate the results, which shows that impulses do contribute to the stabilization of some delay differential equations. To unify various stability concepts and to offer a general framework for the investigation of stability theory, the concept of stability in terms of two measures is introduced and then several stability criteria are developed for impulsive delay differential equations by both the single and multiple Lyapunov functions method. Furthermore, boundedness and periodicity results are discussed for impulsive differential systems with time delay. The Lyapunov-Razumikhin technique, the Lyapunov functional method, differential inequalities, the method of variation of parameters, and the partitioned matrix method are the main tools to obtain these results. Finally, the application of the stability theory to neural networks is presented. In applications, the impulses are considered as either means of impulsive control or perturbations.Sufficient conditions for stability and stabilization of neural networks are obtained.