4/20/2015

AntennaTutorialsIntroductiontoTransmissionLines(Continued)

TransmissionLinesModelsandCharacteristicImpedance
Previous:IntrotoTxLines

TransmissionLines

Antennas(Home)

RelatedTopics

Next:ReflectionCoefficient
andVSWR

Inthissection,we'llformamodelfortransmissionlinesandthenanalyzetheequationsthat
governtheirbehaviour.We'llthenintroducethekeypropertyofcharacteristicimpedance.
Tounderstandtransmissionlines,we'llsetupanequivalentcircuittomodelandanalyzethem.
Tostart,we'lltakethebasicsymbolforatransmissionlineoflengthLanddivideitintosmall
segments:

Thenwe'llmodeleachsmallsegmentwithasmallseriesresistance,seriesinductance,shunt
conductance,andshuntcapcitance:

Theparametersintheabovefigurearedefinedasfollows:
R'resistanceperunitlengthforthetransmissionline(Ohms/meter)
L'inductanceperunitlengthforthetxline(Henries/meter)
G'conductanceperunitlengthforthetxline(Siemans/meter)
C'capacitanceperunitlengthforthetxline(Farads/meter)
Wewillusethismodeltounderstandthetransmissionline.Alltransmissionlineswillbe
representedviatheabovecircuitdiagram.Forinstance,themodelforcoaxialcableswilldiffer
frommicrostriptransmissionlinesonlybytheirparametersR',L',G'andC'.
Togetanideaoftheparameters,R'wouldrepresentthed.c.resistanceofonemeterofthe
transmissionline.TheparameterG'representstheisolationbetweenthetwoconductorsofthe
transmissionline.C'representsthecapacitancebetweenthetwoconductorsthatmakeupthetx
lineL'representstheinductanceforonemeterofthetxline.Theseparameterscanbederived
foreachtransmissionline.Anexampleofderivingtheparamtersforacoaxialcableisgiven
here.
Assumingthe+zaxisistowardstherightofthescreen,wecanestablisharelationshipbetween
thevoltageandcurrentattheleftandrightsidesoftheterminalsforoursmallsectionof
http://www.antennatheory.com/tutorial/txline/transmission2.php

1/4

4/20/2015

AntennaTutorialsIntroductiontoTransmissionLines(Continued)

transmissionline:

Usingoridinarycircuittheory,therelationshipbetweenthevoltageandcurrentontheleftand
rightsideofthetransmissionlinesegmentcanbederived:

Takingthelimitasdzgoestozero,weendupwithasetofdifferentialequationsthatrelatesthe
voltageandcurrentonaninfinitesimalsectionoftransmissionline:

Theseequationsareknownasthetelegraphersequations.Manipulationoftheseequationsin
phasorformallowforsecondorderwaveequationstobemadeforbothVandI:

Thesolutionoftheabovewaveequationswillrevealthecomplexnatureoftransmissionlines.
Usingordinarydifferentialequationstheory,thesolutionsfortheabovedifferentialequations
aregivenby:

http://www.antennatheory.com/tutorial/txline/transmission2.php

2/4

4/20/2015

AntennaTutorialsIntroductiontoTransmissionLines(Continued)

Thesolutionisthesumofaforwardtravelingwave(inthe+zdirection)andabackward
travelingwave(inthezdirection).Intheabove,

istheamplitudeoftheforwardtraveling

voltagewave, istheamplitudeofthebackwardtravelingvoltagewave, istheamplitude

oftheforwardtravelingcurrentwave,and istheamplitudeofthebackwardtravelingcurrent
wave.

CharacteristicImpedanceZ0
We'renowreadytointroduceafundamentalparameterofeverytransmissionline:its
characteristicimpedance.Thisisdefinedastheratioofthemagnitudeoftheforwardtraveling
voltagewavetothemagnitudeoftheforwardtravelingcurrentwave:

Intermsofthetransmissionlineperlengthparameters,thecharacteristicimpedanceisgiven
by:

Z0willbeextensivelyusedindeterminingothertransmissionlineparameters.
ThispagewillendwithspecialcasesofthecharacteristicImpedance.IfR'=G'=0,thenthe
conductorsofthetransmissionlineareperfectlyconducting(soR'=0)andthedielectric
mediumthatseparatestheconductorshaszeroconductivity(sothatG'=0).Inthiscase,theline
isreferredtoasaLosslessLine.Thecharacteristicimpedancebecomes:

AnothertypeoflineofinterestisthedistortionlesslineThistypeoflinemaycontainloss(so
thatthevoltagediesoffsomewhatasitpropagatesdowntheline),butthemagnitudeofthe
attenuationisfrequencyindependent,andthephaseconstantvarieslinearlywithfrequency.
Thisisdesirablesimilartofiltertheory,thiswouldbeconsidered"linearphase"thatis,
signalsthatcomeoutofthetransmissionlinemightbeattenuated,buthavethesameshape.The
criteriaforthisis:

http://www.antennatheory.com/tutorial/txline/transmission2.php

3/4

4/20/2015

AntennaTutorialsIntroductiontoTransmissionLines(Continued)

ThePropagationConstant:
Thepropagationconstantshowsupinthesolutionforthespatialvariationofthevoltageand
currentwavesalongtheline(seeabove).Therealpartisgivenby thisrepresentstherateof
decayofthewaveasittravelsdownthetransmissionline.Thelarger is,themore"lossy"
thelineis,andthefasterthewavedecays.If =0,thenthelineislossless,andthevoltageand
currentwavesdonotdie(shrink)astheytraveldowntheline.
Theimaginarypartofthepropagationconstantisgivenby .Thisrepresentstherateatwhich
thewavesoscillateasafunctionofpositionontheline.Incontrast,frequencyrepresentsthe
rateofchangeofoscillationasfunctionoftime.Foralosslessline, canbedeterminedfrom
thespeedofpropagationalongtheline(u).Ingeneral, canbedeterminedfrom:

Intheabove,epsilonisthepermittivityoftheline,andmuisthepermeabilityofthe
transmissionline.Notethatlambdaintheaboveequationisthewavelengthwithinthe
transmissionline:itisnotnecessarilythewavelengthofawaveoffrequencyfinfreespace.For
an"airline",thespeeduisequaltothespeedoflightc.
Inthenextsection,we'lllookatfurthersolvingforthewaveequation,andmovetowards
determiningtheinputimpedanceforatransmissionline.

Next:ReflectionCoefficientandVSWR
Previous:IntrotoTransmissionLines
TransmissionLines(TableofContents)
AntennasTutorial(Home)

http://www.antennatheory.com/tutorial/txline/transmission2.php

4/4