Transmission Lines

Transmission Line
• Is a metallic conductor system that is used to
transfer or guide electrical energy from one point
to another using electrical current flow

Primary requirements of a transmission line are

that
(1) the line introduce minimum attenuation to
the signal
(2) the line not radiate any of the signal as radio
energy.
 Category of Transmission Media
• Guided
– Are those with some form of conductor that
provides a conduit in which EM signals are
contained
• Unguided
– Are wireless systems
 Basic Kinds of Waves
Longitudinal Transverse
 INCIDENT WAVES

SOURCE LOAD

REFLECTED WAVES
 Characteristics of EM waves
• Wave velocity
• Frequency
• Wavelength
 Example
• For an operating frequency of 450 MHz, what
length of a pair of conductors is considered to
be a transmission line? (A pair of conductors
does not act as a transmission line unless it is
at least 0.1 λ long.)
 Types of Transmission Lines
• Balanced
– known as Differential T-line
Metallic Circuit Currents- currents that flow in
opposite directions
Longitudinal Currents- currents that flow in same
direction
Has the advantage that most noise interference
(common-mode interference)
CMRR= 40 dB to 70 dB
 Types of Transmission Lines
• Unbalanced- single ended
• Balun
Narrowband balun/
Choke/ sleeve/
Bazooka balun
 Metallic Transmission Lines
1. Parallel-wire - made of two parallel conductors
separated by a space of 1⁄2in to several inches.
Open wire Twin Lead
 Metallic Transmission Lines
2. Twisted Pair
 Metallic Transmission Lines
Categories/Classifications of UTP
CAT1 voice 2400bps
CAT2 voice/data 4Mbps
CAT3 voice/data 16Mbps
CAT4 voice/data 20Mbps
CAT5 voice/data 100Mbps
CAT5e voice/data 250Mbps
CAT6 550Mbps
 Metallic Transmission Lines
3. Coaxial Cable
Rigid air Solid flexible
 Uniformly Distributed Transmission
Line
• Primary constants- commonly called distributed
parameters
– Series resistance
– Series inductance
– Shunt conductance
– Shunt capacitance
 Uniformly Distributed Transmission
Line
• Secondary Constants
– Characteristic impedance
• Impedance seen looking at an infinitely long
transmission line
• Impedance seen looking into a finite length of
line that is terminated in a purely resistive load
equal to the characteristic impedance of the
line
• Surge impedance
• In terms of physical dimensions

2 wire line Coaxial

 Example
• The primary line constant for a coaxial cable at
a frequency of 10MHz were determined
approximately as follows: L = 234 nH/m, C =
93.5 pF/m, R= 0.568 Ω/m, G = 0. Determine
the characteristic impedance
 Example
• If the spacing of a two-wire open air
transmission line is 12 inches and the
conductor diameter is 0.25 inches, determine
the characteristic impedance.
 Example
• What is the characteristic impedance of a
coaxial line with the following data: inner
diameter = 0.2 in, center conductor diameter
= 0.06 in, insulation = teflon
 Propagation constant
• Propagation coefficient
• Used to determine the
reduction on voltage or
current with distance
as TEM propagates
down a transmission
line
Attenuation coefficient Phase Shift Coefficient
 Example
• A signal will undergo a phase shift of how
many rad/m when propagating on a 25 m
coaxial cable with a velocity of 0.66c and
operating at 5 MHz. Also compute for the total
phase delay in degrees.
 Wave propagation on a Metallic
Transmission Line
• Velocity factor
– Velocity constant
– Ratio of the actual
velocity of
propagation
through a given
medium to the
velocity of
propagation
through free space
 Examples
1. Calculate the velocity factor of a coaxial
cable used as a transmission line, with the
characteristic impedance of 50Ω,
capacitance is 40 pF/m and inductance equal
to 50 uH/m.
2. Find the velocity factor and propagation
velocity for a cable with a teflon dielectric.
Electrical length of a transmission line
• The length of the transmission line relative to
the length of the wave propagating down the
line

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 Delay lines
• Transmission lines designed to intentionally
introduce a time delay in the path of EM wave

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Table of common transmission line
characteristics

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 Example
• A 165-ft section of RG-58A/U at 100 MHz is
being used to connect a transmitter to an
antenna. Its attenuation for 100 ft at 100 MHz
is 5.3 dB. Its input power from a transmitter is
100 W. What are the total attenuation and the
output power to the antenna?

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 Example
• A 150-ft length of RG-62A/U coaxial cable is
used as a transmission line. Find
(a) the load impedance that must be used to
terminate the line to avoid reflections
(b) the equivalent inductance per foot
(c) the time delay introduced by the cable
(d ) the phase shift that occurs on a 2.5-MHz
sine wave, and (e) the total attenuation in
decibels
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 Transmission line Losses
1. Conductor loss- conductor heating loss or I2R loss
- directly proportional to the square of the
line of the length and inversely proportional to
the characteristic impedance
2. Dielectric heating loss- a difference of potential
between conductors in a metallic transmission
line

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 Transmission line Losses
3. Radiation loss- if the separation between the
conductors in a metallic transmission line is an
appreciable fraction of a wavelength, the
transmission line may act as an antenna and transfer
the energy to the nearby conductive material
4. Coupling loss- occurs whenever the connection is
made to or from a transmission line or when two
sections of transmission lines are connected together

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 Transmission line Losses

5. Corona- a luminous discharge that occurs

between the two conductors of a
transmission line when the difference of
potential between them exceeds the
breakdown voltage of the dielectric
insulator

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Non-resonant transmission line
–Zo = ZL (matched)
–Flat line

Resonant transmission line

–Zo ≠ ZL (mismatched)

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 Reflection Coefficient
• Coefficient of reflection
• Vector quantity that represents the ratio of
reflected voltage to incident voltage or
reflected current to incident current

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 Example
• What is the voltage reflection coefficient for a
75 ohm line with a terminating impedance of
50 ohms?

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 Standing Waves
• When Zo=ZL, this is called matched line
• When Zo≠ZL, this is called mismatched line

• Interference pattern set up by two travelling

waves

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 Standing Wave Ratio
• Defined as the ratio of the maximum voltage
to the minimum voltage or the maximum
current to the minimum current of a standing
wave on a transmission line

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 Standing Wave Ratio

Vmax Ei  Er
SWR  
Vmin Ei  Er

ZO ZL
SWR  or
ZL ZO
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 Examples
1. For a transmission line giving a max rms
reading of 50V at one point and a minimum
rms voltage reading 25V at another point.
What is the VSWR of the line?
2. What would be the SWR of a transmission line
if power is being delivered to a 100ohm load
by a line with a characteristic impedance of
50ohms?

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 Example
3. For a transmission line with incident voltage
of 5V and reflected voltage of 3V, determine
the reflection coefficient and standing wave
ratio.
4. An RG-11/U foam coaxial cable has a
maximum voltage standing wave of 52 V and a
minimum voltage of 17 V. Find (a) the SWR,
(b) the reflection coefficient, and (c) the value
of a resistive load.

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 Disadvantages of not having a flat
line
• 100% of the source incident power is not
absorbed by the load
• The dielectric separating the two conductors
can break down and cause corona as a result
of the high-voltage SWR
• Reflections and re-reflections cause more
power loss
• Reflections cause ghost images
• Mismatches cause noise interference
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 Standing Waves on Open line
• The voltage incident wave is reflected back
just as if it were to continue
• The current incident wave is reflected back
180deg from how it would have continued
• The sum of the incident and reflected current
waveforms is minimum at the open
• The sum of the incident and reflected voltage
waveforms is maximum at the open

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 Standing Waves on a Short Line
• The voltage incident wave is reflected back
180deg reversed from how it would have
continued
• The current incident wave is reflected back
the same as if it had continued
• The sum of the incident and reflected current
waveforms is maximum at the short
• The sum of the incident and reflected voltage
waveforms is zero at the short

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Transmission Line Input Impedance

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 Transmission Line Impedance
Matching
Quarter-wavelength transformers-
are used to match transmission lines to purely
resistive loads whose resistance is not equal
to the characteristic impedance of the line

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The impedance transformations for a quarter
wavelength transmission line are as follows:
• RL=ZO λ/4 line acts as a transformer with
1:1 turns ratio
• RL>ZO λ/4 line acts as a step-down
transformer
• RL<ZO λ/4 line acts as a step-up
transformer

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 Z 'O  ZO Z L
• Ex. Determine the physical length and
characteristic impedance for a quarter-
wavelength transformer that is used to match
a section of RG-8A/U (Zo=50Ω) to a 150Ω
resistive load. The frequency of operation is
150MHz and the velocity factor Vf=1

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 Stub Matching

• Transmission line
stub
- is simply a
piece of additional
transmission line
that is placed
across the primary
line as close to the
load as possible
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 Time-Domain Reflectometry
• A technique
that can be
used to locate v(t )
an impairment d
in a metallic 2
cable
• Operates in a
fashion similar
to radar
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 Example
• A pulse is transmitted down a cable that has a
velocity of propagation of 0.8c. The reflected
signal is received 1us later. How far down the
cable is the impairment?

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 Example
Using a TDR, a transmission line impairment is
located 3000m from the source. For a velocity
of propagation of 0.9c, determine the time
elapsed from the beginning of the pulse to the
reception of the echo.

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 Microstrip
• Is a flat conductor separated from a ground
plane by an insulating dielectric material

Microstrip. (a) Unbalanced. (b) Balanced.

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 87 5.98h
ZO  ln( )
 1.41 0.8w  t
Zo- characteristic impedance
Є- dielectric constant
w- width of copper trace
t- thickness of copper trace
h- distance between copper trace and the ground plane

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 Stripline
• Is simply a flat conductor sandwiched
between two ground planes

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 60 4d
ZO  ln[ ]
 0.67 w(0.8  t / h)
Zo- characteristic impedance
Є- dielectric constant
d- dielectric thickness
w- width of the conducting copper trace
t-thickness of the conducting copper trace
h- distance between copper trace and the ground place

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 Example
• A microstrip transmission line is to be used as
a capacitor of 4 pF at 800 MHz. The
• PCB dielectric is 3.6. The microstrip
dimensions are h=0.0625 in, w=0.13 in, and
t=0.002 in. What are (a) the characteristic
impedance of the line and (b) the reactance of
the capacitor?

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