U18ECI7204

RF AND MICROWAVE
ENGINEERING

Terminations
Thilagavathi K / AP III
Department of Electronics and Communication
Engineering
 Overview of this Lecture

• Matched Terminations
• Short Circuit Plunger
 Terminations
• Terminations are resistive components that are used
to absorb a microwave signal.
• In order to get maximum power at desired frequency,
two different arrangements can be used, which are
called as terminators.
1.Matched load termination.
2.Variable Short circuit.
 Terminations
The three characteristics of terminations that must be
considered are:
• Characteristic impedance (usually 50 ohms, sometimes 75 ohms.
and hundreds of ohms in a waveguide)
• Bandwidth
• Power handling (often determines what materials are used)
Styles of terminations include:
• Coaxial
• Waveguide
• Surface mount
• Chip-and-wire
• On-chip (monolithic)
 Matched Terminations
• Matched terminations are used to absorb the incident power
without appreciable reflection and radiation.
• Used in Coaxial line, strip line and Waveguides
• Equivalent to terminating the line by its characteristic impedance.
• A tapered lossy dielectric is placed at the end of a shorted line to form a matched
termination.
• Length of tapered section is kept about 1 to 2 guide wavelength at the lowest
frequency of operation for effective absorption of power.
• To increase power dissipation aquadag-coated sand is used as lossy material.
• High power(>1W)terminations use outer cooling fins for heat dissipation.
Matched Terminations
Matched Terminations
Characteristics
Problems
 SHORT CIRCUIT PLUNGER

• A short circuit plunger is a variable short circuit to provide an

adjustable reactive load Zin=jZ0 tan ꞵl with range -j∞ to j∞ and
reflects all the incident power.
• Used for measurements of impedance or S parameters of a
microwave device or circuit element.
Requirements for the design
• Low contact resistance at the guide wall
• Constant contact resistance for movement along the
line
……Met by Quarter wavelength long spring contact
assembly
Summary
• Matched Terminations
• Short Circuit Plunger