The Smith Chart - construction

 A very basic use of the Smith Chart is to graphically convert values of  into
z and vice versa. To this purpose in the  plane a grid is drawn that allows
to find the value of z at a given point .
 An important property of conformal mappings is that general circles are
mapped to general circles. Straight lines are considered as circle with
infinite radius
 Below the loci of constant resistance and constant reactance are drawn in
the  plane
 plane
 The origin of the 
plane is marked with
a red dot, the
diameter of the
largest circle is ||=1

constant resistance circles constant reactance circles

CAS, Trondheim, August 2013 RF Basic Concepts, Caspers, Kowina 1

The Smith Chart circumference

T he C ompl ete S mi th C hart || = 1
Black M agic D esign

The Smith Chart is simply the 

0.12 0.13

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90
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9 6
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1 110 40 70 0.3
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help to find the z for each point.

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50

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OR IGIN

Downloaded from http://www.sss-mag.com/smith.html

CAS, Trondheim, August 2013 RF Basic Concepts, Caspers, Kowina 2

1
 Navigation in the Smith Chart 1
 When a lossless element is added in series to an impedance z, one
moves along the constant resistance circles (R = const)
 When a lossless element is added in parallel (shunt) to an
impedance z, one moves along the circles conductance (G = const)

Series L
Shunt L z Up Down

Shunt C Black Series L Series C

Series C circles
Blue Shunt L Shunt C
circles

CAS, Trondheim, August 2013 RF Basic Concepts, Caspers, Kowina 3

Navigation in the Smith Chart 2

 An ideal lossless transmission line only changes the phase of  => a
transmission line gives a rotation about the center of the Smith Chart
 For a line of length /4 we get a rotation by 180 degrees => a short
circuit is converted into an open circuit and vice versa. Such a line is
called /4 transformer.

G R

Toward load z Toward generator Red Resistance R in

arcs series

Blue Conductance G
arcs in parallel

Con- Transmission
centric line going
circle Toward load
Toward generator

CAS, Trondheim, August 2013 RF Basic Concepts, Caspers, Kowina 4

2
 What about all these rulers
below the Smith chart (1)
How to use these rulers:
You take the modulus of the reflection coefficient of an impedance to be examined by
some means, either with a conventional ruler or better take it into the compass. Then refer
to the coordinate denoted to CENTER and go to the left or for the other part of the rulers
(not shown here in the magnification) to the right except for the lowest line which is
marked ORIGIN at the left.

Example

RF Basic Concepts, Caspers, Kowina 5

CAS, Trondheim, August 2013

What about all these rulers

below the Smith chart (2)
First ruler / left / upper part, marked SWR. This means VSWR, i.e. Voltage Standing Wave
Ratio, the range of value is between one and infinity. One is for the matched case (center
of the Smith chart), infinity is for total reflection (boundary of the SC). The upper part is in
linear scale, the lower part of this ruler is in dB, noted as dBS (dB referred to Standing
Wave Ratio). Example: SWR = 10 corresponds to 20 dBS, SWR = 100 corresponds to 40
dBS [voltage ratios, not power ratios].

Example

RF Basic Concepts, Caspers, Kowina 6

CAS, Trondheim, August 2013

3
 What about all these rulers
below the Smith chart (3)
Second ruler / left / upper part, marked as RTN.LOSS = return loss in dB. This indicates
the amount of reflected wave expressed in dB. Thus, in the center of SC nothing is
reflected and the return loss is infinite. At the boundary we have full reflection, thus return
loss 0 dB. The lower part of the scale denoted as RFL.COEFF. P = reflection coefficient in
terms of POWER (proportional ||2). No reflected power for the matched case = center of
the SC, (normalized) reflected power = 1 at the boundary.

Example

RF Basic Concepts, Caspers, Kowina 7

CAS, Trondheim, August 2013

What about all these rulers

below the Smith chart (4)
Third ruler / left, marked as RFL.COEFF,E or I = gives us the modulus (= absolute value)
of the reflection coefficient in linear scale. Note that since we have the modulus we can
refer it both to voltage or current as we have omitted the sign, we just use the modulus.
Obviously in the center the reflection coefficient is zero, at the boundary it is one.
The fourth ruler has been discussed in the example of the previous slides: Voltage
transmission coefficient. Note that the modulus of the voltage (and current) transmission
coefficient has a range from zero, i.e. short circuit, to +2 (open = 1+ with =1). This ruler
is only valid for Zload = real, i.e. the case of a step in characteristic impedance of the
coaxial line.

Example

RF Basic Concepts, Caspers, Kowina 8

CAS, Trondheim, August 2013

4
 What about all these rulers
below the Smith chart (5)
Third ruler / right, marked as TRANSM.COEFF.P refers to the transmitted power as a
Pt .Thus,
1   in the center of
2
function of mismatch and displays essentially the relation
the SC full match, all the power is transmitted. At the boundary we have total reflection and
e.g. for a  value of 0.5 we see that 75% of the incident power is transmitted.

| |=0.5 Note that the voltage of the transmitted wave in this

case is 1.5 x the incident wave (Zload = real)
Example
RF Basic Concepts, Caspers, Kowina 9
CAS, Trondheim, August 2013

What about all these rulers

below the Smith chart (6)
Second ruler / right / upper part, denoted as RFL.LOSS in dB = reflection loss. This ruler
refers to the loss in the transmitted wave, not to be confounded with the return loss
in dB. Pt  1  
2
referring to the reflected wave. It displays the relation

Example:   1 / 2  0 .707 , transmitted power = 50% thus loss = 50% = 3dB.

Note that in the lowest ruler the voltage of the transmitted wave (Zload = real) would be
Vt  1 .707
if referring  1 voltage.
to the 1/ 2

Example

RF Basic Concepts, Caspers, Kowina 10

CAS, Trondheim, August 2013

5
 What about all these rulers
below the Smith chart (7)
First ruler / right / upper part, denoted as ATTEN. in dB assumes that we are measuring an
attenuator (that may be a lossy line) which itself is terminated by an open or short circuit
(full reflection). Thus the wave is travelling twice through the attenuator (forward and
backward). The value of this attenuator can be between zero and some very high number
corresponding to the matched case.
The lower scale of ruler #1 displays the same situation just in terms of VSWR.
Example: a 10dB attenuator attenuates the reflected wave by 20dB going forth and back
and we get a reflection coefficient of =0.1 (= 10% in voltage).

Another Example: 3dB attenuator gives forth and

back 6dB which is half the voltage.
Example
RF Basic Concepts, Caspers, Kowina 11
CAS, Trondheim, August 2013