Signal Integrity:

Applied Electromagnetics and Professional Practice

CHAPTER 7
LOSSY TRANSMISSION LINES
LECTURE SLIDES BY DR. SAMUEL H. RUSS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA
CHAPTER 7 OBJECTIVES

• Understand units of attenuation

• Contrast frequency-dependent and –independent
attenuation and identify sources
• Explain dielectric loss, its physical origins, and its
effects on ε
• Read dielectric loss off of a datasheet
• Explain how it affects signal propagation
WHAT IS ATTENUATION?

• Signals get weaker over distance

• Like radio signals traveling away from an
antenna…

• How is it measured?
• Attenuation is exponential, so the units are dB per
distance (e.g. dB/m)
EXAMPLE: CABLE WITH 0.1 dB/m
OF ATTENUATION
• What is amplitude of 5V signal after traveling 6m?
• Attenuation = 0.1 x 6 = 0.6dB
• 0.6 dB of loss = 10-(0.6/20) = 0.933
• Output = 5 x 0.933 = 4.665V
• At what distance does signal have amplitude of 4V?
• Output = 4/5 = 0.8; 10-(x/20) = 0.8
• x/20 = -0.9691; x = 1.9382 dB
• Distance = 1.9382/0.1 = 19.4 m
TYPES OF ATTENUATION

• Frequency-independent
• Like radio waves over distance
• Signal arrives smaller, but completely intact – scale
model of original signal

• Frequency-dependent (higher at high frequency)

• Signal is low-pass filtered; rise-time degradation (e.g.)
ILLUSTRATION OF ATTENUATION

Frequency-Independent
Attenuation

Original Signal
Frequency-Dependent
Attenuation
SOURCES OF FREQUENCY-
DEPENDENT ATTENUATION
• First source: Skin effect
• Resistance goes up with square root of frequency
• … so higher frequencies are more attenuated
• Next source: Let’s back up…
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PUT A
GLASS BOWL IN A MICROWAVE?
• It eventually gets hot
• But how!!??
• Getting hot is significant – it means that the glass is
absorbing and dissipating RF energy

• Answer: Polar molecules rotate to line up with the

applied RF energy
• This rotation creates heat and dissipates the RF energy
• This is called dielectric loss
• Remember – it is occurring in the dielectric, the insulator
CAPACITOR: APPLY HIGH
FREQUENCY AND OBSERVE
CURRENT
• First current: 90° out of phase with voltage, goes up
with frequency
• This is the I = C dV/dt behavior of a capacitor
• Second current: In phase with voltage, goes up with
frequency
• This is due to dielectric loss
• Turns out to be much smaller than the other, which is why it
is rarely noticeable…
NOW SOME MATH….

•  Start with conductance, I = VG…

• Express the two currents we just observed:
I  jCV  Cˆ V

• Again, second current is real, and express its ratio

as
CAN FACTOR C…

•  Can define a new version of C, call it εr C0

• Doing this to separate the dielectric constant from
everything else

• Can then factor out εr from C and from

I  j r C 0V  ˆr C 0V  C 0V ( j r  ˆr )
WHAT HAPPENED TO ε? COMPLEX!

••The
  jεr term is ordinary capacitance and the term is
dielectric loss
• This gets very confusing, so read carefully…
• The convention is to express as a fraction of εr
• The way this is done is to treat εr as real and as imaginary
• Even though εr is associated with imaginary current and with
real
 PLOT IT ON AN ARGAND PLANE…

• The phase angle of εr

is δ
εr
δ tan    r
ˆ
r
εr • So…

I  C 0V ( j r  ˆr )   r C oV ( j  tan  )  CV ( j  tan  )

• And…
REVIEW…

• Imaginary part of I/V is the familiar ωC

• Real part of I/V is ωC tan δ
• This is due to dielectric loss, a property of non-ideal dielectrics
that cause them to absorb real energy at high frequency

• Example: The tan δ of FR-4 is 0.02

• Note the scale: 1/50th the “ordinary” capacitive current…
• Normal to find tan δ on datasheets or on reputable
online sources
SO HOW IS DIELECTRIC LOSS
MANIFESTED?
• Basic assumption of transmission lines was that
series resistance of conductor was 0 and shunt
conductance of dielectric was 0
• Turns out not to be true, so we have to go back
to the lumped model of a transmission line
R R R

LM G LM G LM G
CM CM CM
R R R
MODELING IT

• The voltage coming out of one piece of line is

the voltage divider between 1/GL and Z0/2
1
GL 1
Vout  Vin ( )  Vin ( )
1 Z0 1
 1  GL Z 0
GL 2 2

• Attenuation: analyze it exponentially…

Vout 1 1
 e x
ln( )  x 1
Vin 1 1 ln(1  G L Z 0 )  x
1  GL Z 0 1  GL Z 0 2
2 2
WHAT NEXT?

• Since ln(1+a) ≈ a… • Since log10(e) = 0.434…

Vout 1
 GL Z 0 b  •4.34G L Z 0 where b is loss in dB
 e x  e 2
Vin
• Now convert to dB… • Recall that r
Z0 
1
 GL Z 0 G L  C L tan  cC L
e 2
 10 ( b / 20)
1
• So…
 G L Z 0 log 10 (e)   b C L tan   r 4.34 tan   r
2 20 b  4.34G L Z 0  4.34 
cC L c
EXAMPLE

• FR-4
  has εr = 4.2 and tanδ = 0.02
• Find loss in dB/cm due to dielectric loss at f = 10GHz
• c = 3x1010 cm/s
• b = (4.34 * 2 * π * 10 GHz * 0.02 * )/3x1010 cm/s = 0.372
dB/cm

• Over what length will there be 3 dB of loss?

• 3 dB / 0.372 dB/cm = 8.05 cm
AN ASIDE ABOUT FR-4…

• FR-4 shows significant attenuation even at low GHz

• This shows that the era of FR-4 is coming to an end

• Is there an easier way to express dielectric loss?

• Express it as a risetime adder…
FIND 3DB LOSS POINT…

• Multiply loss equation by length d and solve

for 4.34 tan   r
loss=3dB 4.34  2f 3dB tan  r 27.26 f 3dB tan   r
3 d d d
c c c

3c
f 3dB 
• So… 27.26 tan   r d

• Since tr t≈ 00.35/f

.35
r
27.26 tan 
 0.353dB
r d

3.18 tan   r d
f 3dB 3c c
REDO THE FR-4 EXAMPLE…

•  Risetime adder of 1 cm of conductor:

• tr = 3.18 * 0.02 * * 1 cm / 3x1010 cm/s = 0.434 ps
• FR-4 has a risetime adder of 0.434 ps/cm due
to dielectric loss
TWO EXAMPLES

• 1 Gbps SATA: tr = 130 ps. Routed over 10 cm of FR-4.

• Risetime = 0.434 x 10 = 4.34 ps. 130 2  4.34 2  130.1 ps
• Not a significant issue.
• 6 Gbps SATA: tr = 20 ps. Routed over 30 cm of FR-4
• Risetime = 0.434 x 30 = 13.02 ps. 20 2  13.022  23.9 ps
• 20% increase risetime: significant problem.