Department of Electrical Engineering

Air University
Transmission Lines Analysis
Lecture No. 2
RF & Microwave Engineering
BETE-Fall 2009
2
Basit Ali Zeb
Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Topics of Discussion
Why Transmission Lines?
Lumped element circuit model
Wave propagation on Transmission Line
Calculation of:
Characteristics Impedance
Propagation constant
Standing wave ratio
The lossless Line
The terminated lossless transmission line
Power Flow on lossless transmission line
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Basit Ali Zeb
Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Guided Wave to Free Space
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Why Transmission Lines ?
When voltage at A changes state, does the
new voltage appear at B instantaneously?
If separation distance is electrically large, there will
be a propagation delay
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Why Transmission Lines ?
In high frequency circuits, even smaller distances
are comparable and hence propagation delay
for a voltage signal becomes significant.
We have to consider the propagation effects of
voltage/current signals, which are modeled as a
Transmission line.
Both Voltage and Current can propagate along a
Transmission line (TL)
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Basit Ali Zeb
Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Transmission Lines
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Types of Transmission Lines
Coaxial Cable
Two-wire Twisted pair
Microstrip, Stripline and coplanar
waveguides, etc.
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Printed Circuit Transmission Lines
Integrated Circuit
Microstrip
Stripline
Via
Cross section view taken here
PCB substrate
T
W
Cross Section of Above PCB
T
Signal (microstrip)
Ground/Power
Signal (stripline)
Signal (stripline)
Ground/Power
Signal (microstrip)
Copper Trace
Copper Plane
FR4 Dielectric
W
Microstrip
Stripline
Frequency (f) is
approaching 10 GHz
Wavelength () is 3
cm
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Transmission Lines
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Role of Wavelength
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Role of Wavelength
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Characterization of TLs
Several types of transmission lines have been
developed for various applications. They are
characterized by their:
Attenuation,
Bandwidth,
Dispersion
Power-handling capability,
Physical size, and applicability for integration..
Dispersion means the frequency dependence
characteristics of wave propagation
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BETE-Fall 2009
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Basit Ali Zeb
Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Characterization of TLs
All true transmission Lines share one common
characteristics: the E, H fields and the direction
of wave propagation are all mutually
perpendicular
What is the direction of propagation and what are
they called?
The long axis of the geometry
TEM waves
TEM mode and Non-TEM mode Transmission Lines
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Lumped Element Circuit Model
3. Segmentation of the line
into small elements of
over which Kirchhoffs law of
constant voltage and current
can be applied.
1. Voltages and currents are
no longer spatially constant
over the geometric scale of
interest to RF/Microwave
engineer
2. Kirchhoffs law of
constant voltage and current
cannot be applied over the
macroscopic dimension of
transmission line.
4. A finite length TL can be
viewed as cascade
connection of number of these
lumped element circuit models
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Lumped Element Circuit Model
R, L, C, G are frequency dependant distributed
parameters expressed per unit length of line
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Equivalent Circuit Representation
Provides a clear
intuitive picture
Lends itself to a
2-port network
representation
Permits the KCL
& KVL analysis
ADVANTAGES
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Transmission Line Equations
The terminal characteristics of TL model is
determined from standard Kirchhoffs laws
for a short line segment .
The equations so derived are commonly
known as the Telegrapher Equations. In
phasor form,
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Propagation Wave equations
The two first order differential equations can be
solved to give wave equations for voltage & current
along the Transmission line:
where
Attenuation constant Phase constant
Complex
Propagation
Constant
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Voltage & Current Waves
Traveling wave solution to wave equations gives
us the voltage and current along the line. It can
be found as:
term represents wave propagation in + z direction
term represents wave propagation in z direction
V
0
+
, I
0
+
are the wave amplitudes in +z direction
V
0
-
, I
0
-
are the wave amplitudes in -z direction
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Characteristics Impedance
We can easily relate the current wave amplitudes
to the voltage wave amplitude by using the
following two equations:
And solving for the value of current wave I(z):
Hence the characteristics impedance is calculated by
comparing the two current equations as:
COMPLEX
QUANTITY
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Transmission Line Parameters
A transmission line is characterized by two fundamental
parameters, its propagation constant and characteristics
impedance Z
0
All TEM transmission line share the following useful relations:
LC = G/C = /
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
The Lossless TL
The characteristic impedance, in general, is a complex
quantity and hence losses must be taken into account in
real transmission lines
However, transmission lines can be designed to minimize
ohmic losses and dielectric loss, by selecting conductors
with high conductivities and dielectric materials (filling in
between wires) with negligible conductivities.
In such case, we can safely assume very small values of R
and G (R << jL and G << jC.)
Z
0
is a purely real quantity as we let R = G = 0 given by
the value:
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Basit Ali Zeb
Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
The Lossless TL- parameters
Wavelength of the
propagating signal:
Phase velocity
What is the
characteristic
impedance of
free space?
Recap: We expect that V(z) and I(z) are not constant along the RF &
microwave circuit interconnect. Rather they vary along the transmission
line all the times.
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Voltage Reflection Coefficient
Transmission line of length connected on one end with a
generator and on the other end to a load Z
L
. The load is
located at z = 0 and the generator terminals are at z = - .
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Reflection Coefficient
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Reflection Coefficient
Given the
reflection
coefficient, total
voltages and
currents on TL
can be found.
This is the general
reflection coefficient

For lossless TL,

what would it be?
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Standing Wave Ratio (SWR)
Voltage and current
on the line consist of
a superposition of
incident and reflected
waves.
Standing waves do not occur when
there is matched load or = 0.
1 SWR
Practical RF and
Microwave systems
should exhibit a value
close to 1
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
SWR
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
SWR
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
SWR
SWR and Reflection Coefficient are the representation of same
phenomenon, i.e., impedance mismatch
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Return Loss
In practical microwave systems, we seek the highest
possible value of RL
A matched load has infinite return loss.
A load that reflects back all power has zero return loss.
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Input Impedance
What if we need to find the voltage at the input
of the transmission line terminals?
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Input Impedance
At a distance z = - l from the load
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Input Impedance of a TL
It takes into account the frequency
of operation through wave number
It predicts how the load impedance
can be transformed along a TL of Z
0
and length L
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Input Impedance Vs. Frequency
length = 10 cm
Practical
measurements with
network analyzer
permits the recording
of graphs as shown
here.
If we fix the frequency
and vary the line
length, we will get the
identical response
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Special Cases of Lossless
Terminated Transmission Lines
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Termination of TLs
We will now consider the termination of
transmission lines that are excited by sinusoidal
steady state sources
Adding terminations produces reflection so that
total voltage and current anywhere on the TL is
the sum of forward and reverse propagating
waves.
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Special Cases
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Short Circuit Termination
At the load z = 0, the voltage
V
L
is minimum while current
I
L
is maximum
Voltage, Current and Input Impedance expressions!
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BETE-Fall 2009
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Short Circuit Termination
Observe the periodic
transition of input
impedance as the
distance from the
load increases
Periodic transition
of Input impedance
with /2
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Open Circuit Termination
At the load z =0, the
voltages V
L
is maximum
and current I
L
= 0
Voltage, Current and Input Impedance expressions!
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Open Circuit Termination
Periodic transition
of Input impedance
with /2
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Inductive & Capacitive Behavior
in in in
jX R Z + =
In general, the input impedance may be complex which
consists of a real part and an imaginary part:
In case of a short-circuited and open-circuited lossless line, the
input impedance is purely reactive, i.e., have imaginary part
only. Through proper choice of the lengths of a short-circuited
line, desired inductance or capacitance can be achieved.
1. If tan 0: the line appears as an equivalent inductor Leq
whose impedance is equal to j Zo tan
2. If tan 0: the line appears as an equivalent capacitor Ceq
whose impedance is equal to j Zo tan
RF & Microwave Engineering
BETE-Fall 2009
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Basit Ali Zeb
Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Inductive and Capacitive Behavior
l tan
0
jZ L j
eq
=
|
|

\
|
=

0
1
tan
1
Z
L
l
eq

For short circuit termination, the minimum line length that

would result in an input impedance Z
in
equivalent to that of
inductance L
eq
is:
1.
l

tan
1
0
jZ
C j
eq
=
(
(

|
|

\
|
=

0
1
1
tan
1
Z C
l
eq

The minimum line length that would result in an input

impedance Z
in
equivalent to that of capacitance C
eq
is:
2.
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Advantages
Through proper choice of the length of a short-
circuited line, we can make substitutes for
capacitors and inductors with any desired
reactance.
This practice in indeed common and desirable in
the design of microwave circuits and high-speed
ICs where making an actual capacitor or inductor
is much difficult.
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BETE-Fall 2009
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Half-Wavelength Line
How can we make the input impedance of a line equal to Z
L
?
0 tan tan
2
= =
=

n l
n l
Consequently, the input impedance expression reduces to:
L in
Z Z =
Thus a generator connected to load through a half wavelength
lossless line would induce the same voltage across the load
and current through it as when the line is not there.
RF & Microwave Engineering
BETE-Fall 2009
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Basit Ali Zeb
Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Quarter Wave Transformer
It is used to match the real load impedance with the desired
input impedance.
=
=
l
l

tan
4
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Basit Ali Zeb
Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Quarter Wave Transformer
When a finite transmission line is terminated with its own
characteristic impedance, the voltage and current distributions are
exactly the same as though the line had been extended to infinity.
Practically, this technique is easy to build but gives narrowband
matching and is not suitable for wideband matching
RF & Microwave Engineering
BETE-Fall 2009
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Basit Ali Zeb
Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Matched Transmission Line
For a matched lossless transmission line
with:
0
Z Z
L
=
1. The input impedance becomes
for all locations of z on the transmission line
2. Reflection coefficient is zero
3. All the incident power is delivered to the
load, regardless of the line length.
L in
Z Z =
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Power Flow on a TL
A Hugely important part of electrical engineering is delivering
signal power to a load. Examples include efficiently delivering
electromagnetic power from a source to an antenna, or
maximizing the power delivered from a filter to an amplifier.
So far our discussion is based on the voltage and current
aspects of wave propagation on a transmission line.
The incident and reflected waves carry power with them. So
we look into the power flow on a lossless transmission line
from source to load.
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Basit Ali Zeb
Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Time Average Power Flow
Often the power we are ultimately concerned is the real
time average power rather than instantaneous power:
This expression is similar to that used in circuit analysis
Recall the values of voltage and current along the
lossless transmission line:
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Time Average Power Flow
Substituting these values in time average power flow
equation, we get the net average power delivered to the load:
Watts
Since this power is not a function of z (true for lossless TL), a
z-dependence is no longer indicated.
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Basit Ali Zeb
Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Time Average Power Flow
The last equation shows that the total time
averaged power delivered to the load is equal to
the incident time averaged power
minus the reflected time averaged power
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Return Loss
The time averaged power that is not delivered to the load is
considered as a loss. What is this loss called?
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Department of Electrical Engineering, AU
Study
Article 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5 and 2.6
from the text book
Next lecture on Generator and Load
Mismatch