where E and K are the complete elliptic integrals, in contrast calculations which may affect the accuracy of the

accuracy of the final results.

with that for the wideband case,7 for which eqn. 1 gives Some improvement can be achieved if two reference im-
pedances are used. The S-parameters of the transition are
those obtained considering a source impedance of 50 ft at
{sgn xx'} = - p2Fl(i \\ f; p2) = - sin"' p{x) (8) plane A in Fig. 1, and a load impedance equal to the charac-
teristic impedance of the non-50 ft microstrip line at plane D.
Expressing our correlation functions as infinite series in p or r In the calculation to follow, the transition between the two
and taking the Fourier transform, we can generalise Robert microstrip lines will be of the step type. But, as will be shown
Price's results concerning the tails of the output spectra.6 In later on, any discontinuity involving a change of impedance
the wideband case they fall off as l/\f\h+k + 2, and in the can be evaluated using the present method.
narrowband case as 1/1 | / 1 mF \h+*+ 3 for every value of m.
We have seen that the foregoing expressions for correlation L, AL L
-rH
functions facilitate the handling of a number of different cases
and that the Chebyshev transform can be useful in treating
bandpass nonlinearities. The direct derivation of the corre- , i
j H
i
lation function for the output of the latter has yielded a for-
mula that can readily be applied to cases involving AM-PM i ;
i .
conversion, where the output amplitude and phase of the non-
linearity might be represented by a polynomial with complex ;! 1 1
coefficients as a function of the input amplitude. Middleton's ! !
classic results have thus been somewhat simplified in form and
generalised to cover a wider variety of cases. AI B! I D !E !F ,G
c~ c*
N. M. BLACHMAN 4th March 1982 Fig. 1 Transitions from 50 Q coaxial line to non-50 il microstrip line
Mail Stop 6209
GTE Sylvania Systems Group, Box 188 Method of analysis: Consider the schematic diagram shown in
Mountain View, CA 94042, USA Fig. 1, where the wider line has a 50 ft impedance, while the
narrower line has a characteristic impedance Z c . The transi-
References tion from plane A to plane D is characterised in terms of
1 MIDDLETON, D.: 'Some general results in the theory of noise S-parameters. If all the S-parameters are normalised with re-
through nonlinear devices', Quart. Appl. Math., 1948, 5, pp. 445- spect to 50 ft, the signal flow graph will be like the one shown
498 in Fig. 2. It was assumed that the part between planes E and
2 MIDDLETON, D. : 'Introduction to statistical communication theory' G is similar to that between planes A and D. The expressions
(McGraw-Hill, 1960) for the reflection coefficient at A for a given load at G and the
3 BLACHMAN, N. M.: 'Detectors, bandpass nonlinearities, and their
optimization: inversion of the Chebyshev transform', IEEE transmission coefficient from A to G are going to be very long.
Trans., 1971, IT-17, pp. 398^04
4 GRADSHTEYN, i. s., and RYZHIK, i. M. : 'Table of integrals, series and S21 1 S21 1 5,2
products' (Academic Press, 1965), p. 372
5 UHLENBECK, G. E. : Theory of the random process'. MIT Radiation 5
Lab. report 454, Oct. 1943 5,, 522 1 511 5
22 22 S n ,
6 PRICE, R.: 'A note on the envelope and phase-modulated compo-
nents of narrow-band Gaussian noise', IRE Trans., 1955, IT-1, pp. !G
9-13 s,2 S12
7 VAN VLECK, j . H., and MIDDLETON, D.: 'The spectrum of clipped
noise', Proc. IEEE, 1966, 54, pp. 2-19 Fig. 2 Signal flow graph corresponding to Fig. 1 when all the S-
parameters are normalised to 50 Q.

0013-5 194/82/080347-02$ 1.50/0 If, on the other hand, the S-parameters were normalised to 50
ft at plane A and to Zc at plane D, the signal flow graph
would reduce to that shown in Fig. 3. This signal flow graph is
identical to that discussed in Reference 1. One would then be
tempted to use the expressions presented in that paper to
calculate the S-parameters. But those expressions were ob-
tained under the assumption of small reflections, i.e. | S U | ,
IS221 ^ 1, which may not apply in the present case. The exact
solution is then required.
S-PARAMETER CHARACTERISATION OF Using two values of AL, the S-parameters are calculated as:
A TRANSITION FROM A 50 H COAXIAL
LINE TO A NON-50 1 MICROSTRIP (1)
LINE

Indexing terms: Microwave circuits and systems, Microstrip r1

s,,= 1
IN (2)
The letter presents a routine for the experimental characteris- in 1 e
ation of coaxial-to-microstrip transitions in terms of S-
parameters which are normalised with respect to two differ- . TQ sin 0 t
ent impedances. This enables the de-embedding of devices in Sl2S2l=2j (3)
terms of S-parameters normalised to an impedance which is
more convenient than 50 Q.

Introduction: In a previous letter,1 a routine was presented to with:

characterise the transition from coaxial to microstrip line in
terms of S-parameters. This transition consisted of the coaxial- reflection coefficient at A for a 50 ft load at G, with
to-microstrip connector and a fixed length of 50 ft microstrip AL = 0 (0 = 0)
line. It may be convenient to include in the transition an extra reflection coefficient at A for a 50 ft load at G, with
length of micrpstrip line with a characteristic impedance other AL 0 (0 = 6J
than 50 ft. However, in this case it is not advisable to main-
tain a single normalising impedance, for this means longer To: transmission coefficient from A to G, with AL 0(6 = 0)
348 ELECTRONICS LETTERS 15th April 1982 Vol. 18 No. 8
 Tx: transmission coefficient from A to G with AL ^ 0 (6 = 0 J Let ISTJZQ, Zo) be the renormalisation2 of \_SC~\(ZO, Zc).
The part between planes A and C + can now be described by
2;rAL S-parameters normalised only to Z o , as shown by the signal
1
~~X flow graph in Fig. 4. [S^^ZQ, Z O ) is then calculated as:
kg: wavelength on the centre microstrip line. PT _ oO
" 1 1 " 1 1
S. i = (7)
These S-parameters can be used to de-embed any device con-
nected at plane D or between planes D and E, according to
the routine presented in Reference 1. The S-parameters for the S D1 7 cC
"71
_
(8)
device under test would then be normalised to Z c , the charac-
teristic impedance of the centre microstrip line. If necessary, P D CD OO
rfl _ QT 12^21 22
all the S-parameters can be renormalised to 50 Q, using Prof. "32 "77 (9)
Woods' results.2 22 J
l l

1 S
>
12l521 (10)
2, S,2
D

! Sn S22 522 Sni

j
A' 5,2 D! e- j e E 52,
A' C; 1
Fig. 3 Signal flow graph corresponding to Fig. 1 when S-parameters are s?,
normalised to 50 Q at coaxial ends A and G and to centre line charac- f2967Zn
teristic impedance at D and E Fig. 4 Signal flow graph for the part between A and C + in Fig. 1
All S-parameters normalised to 50 Ci
All the reflection and transmission coefficients are measur-
able with standard equipment because at the coaxial ends the These S-parameters describe whatever is situated between
normalising impedance is 50 Q. The characteristic impedance planes C~ and C + , i.e. any discontinuity involving a change of
of the centre microstrip line need not be known to use eqns. 1 impedance.
and 3, but it must be known if the renormalisation to 50 Q is This technique was used to calculate the effect of a step
required. discontinuity from 50 fi to 75-93 Q. The corresponding S-
parameters are listed in Table 1. In order to have some means
Applications: This new set of S-parameters can be used to of comparison, the same discontinuity was calculated with the
isolate the effect of the step discontinuity. This can be done in method presented in Reference 1. The results are listed in
two slightly different ways: Table 2. The agreement is seen to be very good.
(i) calculation of a lumped equivalent circuit for the step dis- Table 1 S-PARAMETERS FOR A STEP
continuity and also the characteristic impedance of the centre DISCONTINUITY FROM 50 Q TO
line(Zc): 75-93 Cl
In this case a form for the equivalent circuit 34 must be chosen
ISnl aRgSu | S 2 2 I aRgS22
a
F |S12S21| ^9^12S21
beforehand. With straight-forward calculation it is possible to
calculate all the elements of the equivalent circuit and Zc. The GHz deg deg deg
number of measurements to be made depends on the number 20 003 159-7 002 1821 100 17-7
of elements in the equivalent circuit. It was noted that the 30 004 233-2 009 166 0-98 28-8
value obtained for Zc depended very much on the form chosen 40 0-27 73-7 0-20 -65-7 0-84 281
for the equivalent circuit

(ii) calculation of the effect of the step discontinuity in terms of Table 2 S-PARAMETERS FOR A STEP
S-parameters: DISCONTINUITY FROM 50 fi TO
75 93 Q CALCULATED ACCORDING
In this case the characteristic impedance of the centre micro- TO REFERENCE 1
strip line, Zc, must be known. In the calculation to follow,
Prof. Woods' nomenclature2 will be used to designate the nor- \Sl \S22\ aRgS22 \Sl2S2l\ aRgSl2S2
malising impedances for the S-parameters. For example, GHz deg deg deg
[S](Z0, Zc) means that the S-parameters are normalised to Z o 17-7
on the left and to Zc on the right. 20 003 157-6 004 171- 5 100
30 004 2381 009 15- 6 0-97 29-3
With respect to Fig. 1, let: 40 0-27 76-7 0-24 -55- 2 0-87 28-4

[ S ^ Z o , Zc) represent the part between planes A and D
[S\Z0, ZQ) between planes A and C~
\_SC~\{ZO, Zc) between planes A and C +
[S]{Z0, Zo) between planes C" and C +
It is assumed that [Sl~\{Z0, Zc) and [S](Z0, Zo) are known,
and Z o = 50 Q. The latter set of S-parameters is obtained
according to Reference 1. The objective is to calculate [S]
(Z o , Zo).
[SC~\{ZO, Zc) is easily calculated from [S^ZQ, ZC):
(4)
(5)
Scl2Sc2l=S\2S2 2
* (6)
+
where & is the electrical distance between planes C and D.
Conclusions: The main advantage of this routine is the possi-
bility of de-embedding devices situated in microstrip in terms
of S-parameters normalised to impedances other than 50 Cl. It
is a very convenient way of calculating the S-parameters for
any discontinuity involving a change of impedance.
Acknowledgment: Mr. Souza is supported by the Brazilian
Government through CAPES.
J. R. SOUZA 10th March 1982
E. C. TALBOYS
Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
The City University
Northampton Square, London ECIV 0HB, England
References
1 SOUZA, J. R., and TALBOYS, E. C : 'S-parameter characterisation of
coaxial to microstrip transition', IEE Proc. H, Microwaves, Opt. &
Antennas, 1982,129, (1), pp. 37-40

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 15th April 1982 Vol. 18 No. 8 349

2 WOODS, D. : 'Multiport-network analysis by matrix renormalisation
employing voltage-wave S-parameters with complex normalis-
ation', Proc. IEE, 1977,124, (3), pp. 198-204 IEE Conference Publication 183
3 EASTER, B., GOPINATH, A., and STEPHENSON, i. M.: 'Theoretical and
experimental methods for evaluating discontinuities in microstrip',
. Radio & Electron. Eng., 1978, 48, pp. 73-84
4 WIGHT, j . s., JAIN, o. P., CHUDOBIAK, w. j . , and MAKIOS, v. i.: 'Equiv-
alent circuits of microstrip impedance discontinuities and laun-
chers', IEEE Trans., 1974, MTT-22, pp. 48-52
Submarine
0013-5194/821080348-03$!.50/0
telecommunications
ERRATA
systems
Printer's corrections
DE LA SEN, M. : 'Nonperiodic sampling and identifiability', Elec-
tron. Lett., 1981,17, (24), pp. 922-924

In the first line of eqn. 4, p. 923, Q should be replaced by cf>

In the proof of Theorem 2, p. 923, the interval

y, y H I should be replaced by I y, y H
co J y co
PICCARI, L., and SPANO, P. : 'New method for measuring ultra-
wide frequency response of optical detectors', Electron. Lett.,
1982,18, (3), pp. 116-118
The values on the vertical scale of Fig. 2, p. 117, should be
changed from 0 1 , 0-2 to 10, 20, respectively Papers presented at the international
conference on submarine
telecommunications systems, held in London
on 26-29 February 1980 and organised by the
IEE Electronics Division in association with the
IMA, loP, IERE, Societe des Electriciens, des
Electroniciens et des Radioelectriciens,
Institute of Electronics and Communication
Engineers of Japan.
Topics covered at this conference include:
Network planning, system implementation,
influence of the submarine environment,
present technology, reliability, future
developments.
43 papers, 184pp., 297 x 210mm, photolitho
ISBN 0 05296 2118,
February 1980, soft covers,
UK 16.00, Americas $45.00,
Elsewhere 19.00

Inquiries, and orders with remittances should be sent to:

Publications Sales Department,
Peter Peregrinus Ltd,
PO Box 26, Hitchin,
Herts. SG5 1SA, England.
Orders for the Americas should be sent to:
Peter Peregrinus Ltd,
IEEE Service Center,
445 Hoes Lane,
Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.

350 ELECTRONICS LETTERS 15th April 1982 Vol. 18 No. 8