EEL 4410 FIELDS AND WAVES

Ch7 Plane Wave Propagation

ONLINE Nezih Pala, Florida International University
2 Ch7 Plane Wave Propagation
PART 4

© Nezih Pala npala@fiu.edu EEL4410 Fields and Waves

 dc vs ac Current Flow in Conductors
3

When a dc voltage source is connected across the ends of a

conducting wire, the current flowing through the wire is
uniformly distributed over its cross section.

For the ac case, a time-varying current density is maximum

along the perimeter of the wire and decreases exponentially
as a function of distance toward the axis of the wire.

© Nezih Pala npala@fiu.edu EEL4410 Fields and Waves

 Linear Conductor
4

If at z = 0- (just above the surface), an x-polarized electric

field with E = xE0 exists in the dielectric, a similarly
polarized field will be induced in the conducting medium
and propagate as a plane wave along the +z-direction. As
a consequence of the boundary condition mandating
continuity of the tangential component of E across the
boundary between any two contiguous media, the electric
field at z = 0+ (just below the boundary) will be E(0) = xE0
also. The EM fields at any depth z in the conductor are then
given by

From J =σE, the current flows in the x-direction, and its density

with
 Linear Conductor
5

In terms of the skin depth δS = 1/α and using the fact

that in a good conductor α = β;

𝐽𝐽̃𝑥𝑥 𝑧𝑧 = 𝐽𝐽0 𝑒𝑒 − 1+𝑗𝑗 𝑧𝑧/𝛿𝛿𝑆𝑆

The current flowing through a rectangular strip of width

w along the y-direction and extending between zero
and ∞ in the z-direction is
 Surface Impedance
6

The voltage across a length I at the surface [Fig. (b)]

is given by

Hence, the impedance of a slab of width w, length

I, and depth d = ∞ (or, in practice, d > 5δS) is

It is customary to represent Z as

where ZS, the internal or surface impedance of the

conductor, is defined as the impedance Z for a length I
= 1m and a width w = 1 m. Thus,
Thus, conductor is equivalent to a resistor in
series with an inductor.
 ac Resistance of Coaxial Cable
7

Since in the ac case, most of the current flows through

a very thin skin along the outside of the inner
conductor and along the inside of the outer conductor,
we can use the results of the planar conductor to
figure out the resistance of the coax. The procedure
leads to the following expression for the resistance
per unit length:

© Nezih Pala npala@fiu.edu EEL4410 Fields and Waves

 Power Density
8

For any wave with an electric field E and magnetic field

H, the Poynting vector S is defined as

If the wave is incident upon an aperture of area A with

outward surface unit vector n as shown in Fig., then the
total power that flows through or is intercepted by the
aperture is

Since both E and H are functions of time, so is the Poynting vector S. In practice, however, the
quantity of greater interest is the average power density of the wave, Sav, which is the
time-average value of S:
 Power Density Carried by Plane Wave
9

Recall that the general expression for the electric field of a uniform plane wave with arbitrary
polarization traveling in the +z-direction is

where, in the general case, Exo and Ey0 may be complex quantities. The magnitude of E is
2 1⁄2
𝐄𝐄� = (𝐄𝐄� � 𝐄𝐄� ∗ )1⁄2 = 𝐸𝐸𝑥𝑥𝑥 2
+ 𝐸𝐸𝑦𝑦0
The phasor magnetic field associated with E is obtained by
1 1
� 𝑧𝑧 = 𝐱𝐱� 𝐻𝐻
𝐇𝐇 �𝑥𝑥 + 𝐲𝐲�𝐻𝐻
�𝑦𝑦 𝑒𝑒 −𝑗𝑗𝑗𝑗𝑗𝑗 = 𝐳𝐳� × 𝐄𝐄� = −�𝐱𝐱𝐸𝐸�𝑦𝑦𝑦 + 𝐲𝐲�𝐸𝐸�𝑥𝑥𝑥 𝑒𝑒 −𝑗𝑗𝑗𝑗𝑗𝑗
𝜂𝜂 𝜂𝜂
The wave can be considered as the sum of two waves, one comprising fields (Ex, Hy) and
another comprising fields( Ey, Hx) leading to
 Exercise: Average Power
10

The magnetic field of a plane wave traveling in air is given by

H = x50sin(2π ×107t −ky) (mA/m).
Determine the average power density carried by the wave.
 Plane Wave in Lossy Medium
11

For a plane wave travelling in a lossy medium:

where ηC is the intrinsic impedance of the lossy medium. The power density is :

By expressing ηC in polar form as

Whereas the fields E(z) and H(z) decay with z as e-αz the power density Sav decreases as
e-2©αzNezih
. Pala npala@fiu.edu EEL4410 Fields and Waves
 Decibel Scale for Power Ratios
12

The unit for power P is watts (W). In many engineering problems, the
quantity of interest is the ratio of two power levels, P1 and P2, such as the
incident and reflected powers on a transmission line.
The decibel (dB) scale is logarithmic, thereby providing a convenient
representation of the power ratio, particularly when numerical values of
P1/ P2 are plotted against some variable of interest. If
𝑃𝑃1 𝑃𝑃1
If 𝐺𝐺 = then 𝐺𝐺 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = 10 log 𝐺𝐺 = 10 log
𝑃𝑃2 𝑃𝑃2
Power dissipated in a resistor R with voltage V1 across

𝑃𝑃1 𝑉𝑉12 /𝑅𝑅 𝑉𝑉1

𝐺𝐺 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = 10 log 𝐺𝐺 = 10 log = 10 log = 20log = 20 log 𝑔𝑔 = 𝑔𝑔[𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑]
𝑃𝑃2 𝑉𝑉22 /𝑅𝑅 𝑉𝑉2

Note that for voltage (or current) ratios the scale factor is 20 rather than 10, which
results in G [dB] = g [dB].

© Nezih Pala npala@fiu.edu EEL4410 Fields and Waves

 Decibel Scale for Power Ratios
13

The attenuation rate, representing the rate of decrease of the magnitude of Sav(z) as a
function of propagation distance, is defined as

𝑆𝑆𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 (𝑧𝑧)
𝐴𝐴 = 10 log = 10 log(𝑒𝑒 −2𝛼𝛼𝛼𝛼 ) = −20𝛼𝛼𝛼𝛼 log 𝑒𝑒 = −8.68𝛼𝛼𝛼𝛼 = −𝛼𝛼 dB⁄m 𝑧𝑧
𝑆𝑆𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 (0)

where
𝛼𝛼 dB⁄m = 8.68 𝛼𝛼 Np⁄m

We also note that, since Sav(z) is directly proportional to |E(z)|2,

𝐸𝐸(𝑧𝑧) 2 𝐸𝐸(𝑧𝑧)
𝐴𝐴 = 10 log = 20 log (dB)
𝐸𝐸(0) 2 𝐸𝐸(0)

© Nezih Pala npala@fiu.edu EEL4410 Fields and Waves

 Example 7-6: Power Received by a Submarine
Antenna
14

A submarine at a depth of 200 m below the sea

surface uses a wire antenna to receive signal
transmissions at I kHz. Determine the power density
incident upon the submarine antenna due to the EM
wave of Example 7-4.

© Nezih Pala npala@fiu.edu EEL4410 Fields and Waves

 Summary
15

• A spherical wave radiated by a source • Media are classified as lossless, low-loss,

becomes approximately a uniform plane wave quasi conducting, or good conducting on the
at large distances from the source. basis of the ratio ε”/ε’ = σ/ωε.
• The electric and magnetic fields of a • Unlike the DC case, wherein the current
transverse electromagnetic (TEM) wave are flowing through a wire is distributed
orthogonal to each other, and both are uniformly across its cross section, in the AC
perpendicular to the direction of wave travel. case most of the current is concentrated
along the outer perimeter of the wire.
• The magnitudes of the electric and magnetic
fields of a TEM wave are related by the • Power density carried by a plane EM wave
intrinsic impedance of the medium. traveling in an unbounded medium is akin to
the power carried by the voltage/current
• Wave polarization describes the shape of the
wave on a transmission line.
locus of the tip of the E vector at a given point
in space as a function of time. The polarization
state, which may be linear, circular, or elliptical,
is governed by the ratio of the magnitudes of
and the difference in phase between the two
orthogonal components of the electric field
vector.
© Nezih Pala npala@fiu.edu EEL4410 Fields and Waves
 Summary
16

© Nezih Pala npala@fiu.edu EEL4410 Fields and Waves