2 Introduction to Microwave Circuits and Transmission Line Theory

2.1. Introduction
Consider resonant circuit shown in Fig 2.1. It can be observed that the application of the ordinary low-
frequency terminology of inductance and capacitance (and even the word circuit itself) to the objects of
Fig. 2. ld, e, and f is of uncertain validity. In the progression from circuits a and b through to f, the
concepts of capacitance and inductance lose their identity. Inductance and capacitance are thoroughly
disguised in the cylindrical resonator f. To a varying extent, the notions of current, voltage, and resistance
have likewise lost their uniqueness. Evidently, if the electrical properties of such structures are to be
investigated, a direct analysis of the electromagnetic field must be made.

Figure 2.1 Resonant circuits at low frequencies and at microwave frequencies.

In the study of low-frequency circuits, it is possible to avoid an analysis of the field only because all
relevant properties of a circuit element, such as a coil, can be described by one or two numbers, and
different elements can be combined in various ways without impairing the validity of the description. . A
simple coil is characterized by two quantities: inductance and resistance. These two quantities suffice to
determine, at any frequency, the relation between the current flowing at the terminals of the coil and the
voltage between these terminals. Since current and voltage have here a perfectly definite meaning, and
since the relation of one to the other at any frequency is all that need be known, it is not necessary to
inquire into the structure of the complicated magnetic field surrounding the coil unless, on occasion, it is
desired to calculate, rather than to measure, the inductance of the coil. To be able in this manner to avoid
solving Maxwell’s equations for each new structure saves an enormous amount of work and makes
feasible the analysis of quite complicated circuits. Examples in which this abbreviated description in
terms of inductance, capacitance, and resistance is inadequate are, however, not hard to find, even at
ordinary radio frequencies. The apparent inductance of the coil of Fig 2. la would, in fact, be found to
vary noticeably with the frequency. To attribute this variation, as is the custom, to the effect of the
“distributed capacitance” of the windings is to acknowledge that the behavior of the coil and the
associated electromagnetic field cannot be exactly described by a single number, except at a single
frequency. In this special case, for purposes of circuit analysis, the statement that the coil is a linear
device with two terminals presenting a certain impedance Z is a complete and accurate description. At
microwave frequencies the problem is to analyze an electrical structure that cannot be broken down into
such simple elements and for which it is not apparent that voltage and current have a unique meaning.

There is at least one way out of this difficulty. Renouncing all attempts to describe circuits in terms of
voltage, current, and impedance and restricting the emphasis to those quantities which appear explicitly in
the equations of the electromagnetic field, the generality of Maxwell’s equations can be utilized. Each
new problem could then be stated as a boundary-value problem; that is, a solution of Maxwell’s equations
satisfying certain prescribed conditions appropriate to the particular circuit at hand would be sought.
Although it would be easy to state the problem in this way, in all but the simplest cases the actual solution
would be hopelessly difficult. Furthermore, any modification of the original circuit would usually lead to
an entirely new problem. It would not be possible to combine several elements in a new way and to
predict and understand the behavior of the combination without re-examining in detail the behavior of
each element.

If electronic devices and antennas are excluded, the components of microwave circuits consist chiefly of
cavity resonators and transmission lines of various types. The uniform transmission line is perhaps even
more familiar to most engineers. It will be part of the purpose of this handout to show how the standard
methods for the analysis of uniform transmission lines can be applied to the propagation of energy
through hollow pipes of various sorts—in other words, to generalize the notion of a transmission line.
This is not difficult. It can be said that certain isolated elements of the microwave circuit problem are
rather easily handled. The main problem is encountered when things are connected together or when non
uniformities are introduced into a previously uniform line.
 2.2. Lumped Element Model

The lumped element model (also called lumped parameter model, or lumped component model)
simplifies the description of the behavior of spatially distributed physical systems into a topology
consisting of discrete entities that approximate the behaviour of the distributed system under certain
assumptions. It is useful in electrical systems (including electronics), mechanical multibody systems, heat
transfer, acoustics, etc.

Mathematically speaking, the simplification reduces the state space of the system to a finite dimension,
and the partial differential equations (PDEs) of the continuous (infinite-dimensional) time and space
model of the physical system into ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with a finite number of
parameters.

Figure 1.2 Representation of a lumped model made up of a voltage source and a resistor.

2.3. Distributed Element Model

In electrical engineering, the distributed element model or transmission line model of electrical circuits
assumes that the attributes of the circuit (resistance, capacitance, and inductance) are distributed
continuously throughout the material of the circuit. This is in contrast to the more common lumped
element model, which assumes that these values are lumped into electrical components that are joined by
perfectly conducting wires.

Figure 2.3 The distributed element model applied to a transmission line.

In the distributed element model, each circuit element is infinitesimally small, and the wires connecting
elements are not assumed to be perfect conductors; that is, they have impedance. Unlike the lumped
element model, it assumes non-uniform current along each branch and non-uniform voltage along each
node. The distributed model is used at high frequencies where the wavelength becomes comparable to the
physical dimensions of the circuit, making the lumped model inaccurate.

2.4. Transmission Lines

Transmission lines are needed for connecting various circuit elements and systems. Open wire and
coaxial lines are commonly used for circuits operating at low frequencies. On the other hand, coaxial line,
strip line, microstrip line, and waveguides are employed at radio and microwave frequencies. Generally,
low frequency signal characteristics are not affected as the signal propagates through the line. However,
radio frequency and microwave signals are affected significantly because of the fact that the circuit size is
comparable to the wavelength. A comprehensive understanding of signal propagation requires the
analysis of electromagnetic fields in a given line. On the other hand, a generalized formulation can be
obtained using circuit concepts on the basis of line parameters.

This section begins with an introduction to line parameters and a distributed model of the transmission
line. Solutions to the transmission line equation are then constructed to explain the behavior of the
propagating signal. This is followed by discussions on characteristic impedance and reflection coefficient.
 2.5. Distributed Circuit Analysis of Transmission Lines

A transmission line can be viewed as a multiple combination of small circuit segments shown below in
Figure 2.4. The series inductance is due to magnetic field effects and the capacitance is due to electric
field coupling between the lines. The losses in the transmission media are depicted by the series and the
shunt resistors. These resistors represent the finite conductivity of the conductors and the dielectric
insulator between the conductors, respectively.

x

Lx Rx
I( x,t) I( x x,t )

V( x,t) Cx Gx V( x x,t )

x x  x

Figure 2.4 Distributed circuit model for a transmission line.

The constants R, G, L, and C are defined as per unit length circuit parameters and the resulting circuit is
referred to as a distributed model of a transmission line.

These distributed elements are defined as follows:

L = inductance per unit length (H/m)
R = resistance per unit length (_/m)
C = capacitance per unit length (F/m)
G = conductance per unit length (S/m)
L, R, C, and G, the line parameters, are determined theoretically by electromagnetic field analysis of a
transmission line. These parameters are influenced by their cross-section geometry and the electrical
characteristics of their constituents.

2.6. Characteristic Impedance of a Transmission Line

Consider a transmission line that extends to infinity, as shown in Fig 2.5. The voltages and currents at
several points on the line are as indicated. When a voltage is divided by the current through that point, the
ratio is found to remain constant. This ratio is called the characteristic impedance of the transmission
line. Mathematically,

characteristic impedance = Z0 = V1/I1 = V2/I2 = V3/I3 = ・・ ・ = Vn/In

In actual electrical circuits, the length of the transmission lines is always finite. When the transmission
line is terminated by a load impedance that absorbs all the incident signal, the voltage source sees an
infinite electrical length. The voltage-to-current ratio at any point on this line is a constant equal

Figure 2.5 Infinitely long transmission line and voltage source.

to the terminating impedance. In other words, there is a unique impedance for every transmission line that
does not produce an echo signal when the line is terminated by it. The terminating impedance that does
not produce an echo on the line is equal to its characteristic impedance.

If
Z = R + jωL = impedance per unit length
Y = G + jωC = admittance per unit length
then using the definition of characteristic impedance and the distributed model shown in Fig 2.4, we can
write

For

2.7. Transmission Line Equations

Consider the equivalent distributed circuit of a transmission line that is as shown in Fig 2.4. The line is
excited by a voltage source v(t). We apply Kirchhoff’s voltage and current laws over a small length, x,
of this line to the series and shunt elements respectively, one gets:
I x,t
V x,t  V x x,t  RxIx,t
(2.1)
Lx
t

V x x, t (2.2)

I x, t  I x x, t  GxV x x, t  Cx t

Dividing both sides of the above equations by x and taking the limit of both equations as x  0 ,
results in

V x,t I x,t

  RI x, t  L (2.3)
x t

 I x,t  GV x, t  C V x, t (2.4)

x t

Sinusoidal steady state solutions of the voltage and current can be found by assuming the solutions to be
j t j t
V x, t V xe and I x, t  I xe
, i.e., the voltage and current can be described as a phasor
which is a complex vector rotating as a function of time.
The amplitude and phase of the phasor is a function of x, the position on the transmission line.
Substitution of these for the voltage and current in (2.3) and (2.4) yields
 dV x  Z I x (2.5)
dx

d I x  YV x (2.6)

dx

where
Z  R  j L and Y  G  j C

are known as the distributed impedance and admittance, respectively. Since the time dependence is
removed from the differential equations one is dealing with only the voltage and current phasors. Further
differentiation of (2.5) and (2.6) resulted in two second order linear differential equations.

d V x
2
 YZV x  V x
2
2 (2.7)
dx

d Ix
2
 YZ I x I x
2
2 (2.8)
dx
, known as the
x
Working with (2.7), the solution must bear the form of e , where propagation constant is

 YZ  R  j LG  j C     j (2.9)

The parameter  is known as the attenuation constant and  is called the wave number. The general solution of the
voltage phasor is then

  x  x
V x  V e V e (2.10)

where the + and - superscripts are chosen to indicate the propagation direction of the voltage wave. The current
phasor can be derived from (2.10) and (2.5), i.e.

  x
I x I e
 x
I e   V  e  x  V  ex  (2.11)
R  j L

The the forward propagating voltage is related to the forward propagating current characteristic impedance which is

R  j L R  j L
Zc   (2.12)
 G  j C

If the transmission line is lossless then R=G=0 and in that case the characteristic impedance becomes

L
Z0  (2.13)
C
and the propagation constant is given by  YZ   j L j C   0  j LC implying that

=0 and    LC (2.14)

Some special cases are as follows:

1. For a dc signal, Z0 dc = √R/G.
2. For ω→∞,ωL >> R and ωC >> G; therefore, Z0(ω→large) =√L/C.
3. For a lossless line, R → 0 and G → 0; therefore, Z0 =√L/C.

2.8. Reflection Coefficient

The voltage reflection coefficient is defined as the ratio of reflected to incident phasor voltages at a location in the
circuit. In the case of a transmission line terminated by load ZL, the voltage reflection coefficient is given by:

Where, is called the load reflection coefficient. This equation indicates

that the magnitude of reflection coefficient decreases by a factor of e-2αl as the observation point moves
away from the load.

Similarly, the current reflection coefficient, , is defined as a ratio of reflected to incident signal current
phasors. It is related to the voltage reflection coefficient as follows:
3 Review of Network Parameters

3.1. Two-Port Networks

Electronic circuits are frequently needed for processing a given electrical signal to extract the
desired information or characteristics. This includes boosting the strength of a weak signal or
filtering out certain frequency bands, and so on. Most of these circuits can be modeled as a black box
that contains a linear network comprising resistors, inductors, capacitors, and dependent sources.
Thus, it may include electronic devices but not the independent sources. Further, it has four
terminals, two for input and the other two for output of the signal. There may be a few more
terminals to supply the bias voltage for electronic devices. However, these bias conditions are
embedded in equivalent dependent sources. Hence, a large class of electronic circuits can be
modeled as two-port networks. Parameters of the two-port completely describe its behavior in
terms of voltage and current at each port. These parameters simplify the description of its operation
when the two-port network is connected into a larger system.

Fig 3.1 shows a two-port network along with appropriate voltages and currents at its terminals.
Sometimes, port 1 is called the input port and port 2, the out- put port. The upper terminal is
customarily assumed to be positive with respect to the lower one on either side. Further, currents
enter the positive terminals at each port. Since the linear network does not contain independent
sources, the same currents leave respective negative terminals. There are several ways to
characterize this network. Some of these parameters and relations among them are presented in
this section, including impedance parameters, admittance parameters, hybrid

Figure 3.1 Two-port network.

parameters, and transmission parameters. Scattering parameters are introduced later in the next
chapter to characterize the high-frequency and microwave circuits.
 3.2. Impedance Parameters

Consider the two-port network shown in Figure 3.1. Since the network is linear, the superposition
principle can be applied. Assuming that it contains no independent sources, voltage V1 at port 1
can be expressed in terms of two currents as follows:

V1 = Z11 I1 + Z12 I2 (3.1.1)

Since V1 is in volts and I1 and I2 are in amperes, parameters Z11 and Z12 must be in ohms.
Therefore, these are called the impedance parameters. Similarly, we can write V2 in terms of I1
and I2 as follows:

V2 = Z21 I1 + Z22 I2 (3.1.2)

Using the matrix representation, we can write

(3.1.3)

or

[V ] = [Z][I ] (3.1.4)

where [Z] is called the impedance matrix of the two-port network.

Measuring the port impedance is network is the most simplistic and intuitive method of
characterizing a network
If port 2 of this network is left open, I2 will be zero. In this condition, (3.1.1) and
(3.1.2) give

(3.1.5)

and

(3.1.6)
 Similarly, with a source connected at port 2 while port 1 is open circuit, we find that

(3.1.7)

and

(3.1.8)

3.3. Admittance Parameters

Consider again the two-port network shown in Figure 3.1. Since the network is linear, the
superposition principle can be applied. Assuming that it contains no independent sources, current I1
at port 1 can be expressed in terms of two vol- tages:

I1 = Y11V1 + Y12V2 (3.2.1)

Since I1 is in amperes and V1 and V2 are in volts, parameters Y11 and Y12 must be in siemens.
Therefore, these are called the admittance parameters. Similarly, we can write I2 in terms of V1
and V2 as follows:

I2 = Y21V1 + Y22V2 (3.2.2)

Using the matrix representation, we can write

(3.2.3)
or

[I ] = [Y ][V ] (3.2.4)

where [Y ] is called the admittance matrix of the two-port network.

 If port 2 of this network has a short circuit, V2 will be zero. In this condi- tion, (3.2.1) and
(3.2.2) give

(3.2.5)

and

(3.1.6)

Similarly, with a source connected at port 2 and a short circuit at port 1,

(3.1.7)

and

(3.1.8)

Equations (3.2.5) through (3.2.8) define the admittance parameters of a two-port network.
 3.4. Hybrid Parameters
Reconsider the two-port network of Figure 3.1. Since the network is linear, the superposition
principle can be applied. Assuming that it contains no independent sources, voltage V1 at port 1
can be expressed in terms of current I1 at port 1 and voltage V2 at port 2:

V1 = h11 I1 + h12 V2 (3.3.1)

Similarly, we can write I2 in terms of I1 and V2:

I2 = h21 I1 + h22 V2 (3.3.2)

Since V1 and V2 are in volts while I1 and I2 are in amperes, parameter h11 must be in ohms, h12
and h21 must be dimensionless, and h22 must be in siemens. Therefore, these are called the
hybrid parameters.

Using the matrix representation, we can write

(3.3.3)

Hybrid parameters are especially important in transistor circuit analysis. These parameters are
determined as follows. If port 2 has a short circuit, V2 will be zero. In this condition, (3.3.1) and
(3.3.2) give

(3.3.4)

and

(3.3.5)

Similarly, with a source connected at port 2 while port 1 is open,

 (3.3.6)

and

Thus, parameters h11 and h21 represent the input impedance and the forward current gain,
respectively, when a short circuit is at port 2. Similarly, h12 and h22 represent the reverse voltage gain
and the output admittance, respectively, when port 1 has an open circuit. Because of this mix,
these are called hybrid parameters. In transistor circuit analysis, these are generally denoted by hi
, hf , hr , and h0 respectively