PRINCIPLES OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS (4th Edition)

By LOUIS E. FRENZEL JR.

CHAPTER 13

Transmission Lines

Telephone signals, electronic data in LANs, TV and Internet signals in cable TV

networks, and signals from a transmitter to an antenna or from an antenna to a receiver

are all sent over transmission lines in contact. Transmission lines are either short cables

that link equipment or copper traces on a printed circuit board that connect an

embedded microcomputer to other circuits via various interfaces. Transmission lines are

essential components of every transmission network. They're more than just wire and

cable. Their electrical properties are important for effective contact and must be suited

to the equipment. Transmission lines and loops are the same thing. Transmission lines

serve as resonant loops and also reactive elements at very high frequencies with small

wavelengths. Most tuned circuits and filters are introduced with transmission lines at

VHF, UHF, and microwave frequencies. Theory, behavior, and implementations of basic

transmission line concepts are covered in this chapter.

A transmission line's two main conditions are that it introduces minimal

attenuation to the signal and that it does not radiate any of the signal as radio energy.

There are two types of transmission lines: balanced and unbalanced. The term

"balanced line" refers to a circuit through which neither wire is bound to the ground. One

conductor is attached to ground in an unbalanced line. The twisted-pair line can be used
in either a balanced or unbalanced configuration, but the former is more common. When

dealing with transmission lines, standing waves caused by open- and short-circuited

loads must normally be stopped. These free- and short-circuited loads, on the other

hand, can be used as resonant or reactive circuits of one-quarter and one-half

wavelength transmissions.

If the line is a physical cable connecting a transceiver to an antenna or is being

used as a filter or impedance-matching network, the mathematics needed to construct

and interpret transmission lines is complicated. This is due to the complexity of the

impedances involved, which include both resistive and reactive components. R + jX is

the familiar rectangular shape of the impedances. Compilations involving complex

numbers, such as this one, take a long time. Furthermore, trigonometric interactions are

used in many equations. Despite the fact that no single calculation is impossible, the

sheer number of calculations will lead to mistakes.

In the 1930s, one astute engineer agreed to take steps to reduce the risk of

transmission line measurements going wrong. Philip H. Smith, the engineer, published

the Smith map in January 1939, a complex graph that allows visual solutions to

transmission line equations. Because of the wide range of electronic computing options,

the mathematics of transmission line calculations is no longer a concern.