EC5401- TRANSMISSION

LINES AND WAVEGUIDES

(TLW)
K. LAKSHMIPRIYA
TEACHING FELLOW(TF)
ECE DEPARTMENT
CEG, ANNA UNIVERSITY
• Like coaxial cable, stripline is non-dispersive, and has no cutoff
frequency.
• Good isolation between adjacent traces can be achieved more
easily than with microstrip.
• Stripline provides for enhanced noise immunity against the
propagation of radiated RF emissions, at the expense of slower
propagation speeds when compared to microstrip lines.
• The effective permittivity of striplines equals the relative permittivity
of the dielectric substrate because of wave propagation only in the
substrate.
• Hence striplines have higher effective permittivity in comparison to
microstrip lines, which in turn reduces wave propagation speed.
𝐶0
• 𝑣𝑝=
𝜀𝑟,𝑒𝑓𝑓
Striplines are the planar transmission lines,
used at frequencies from 100MHz to
100GHz.
Slot line
• Slotline is a planar transmission line. Here small narrow slot is etched out
on one side of the dielectric substrate from ground plane metal surface.
The other side will not have any metallic stuff.
• This width 'W' determines the slotline characteristic impedance. The
impedance increases with increase in W and is less sensitive to height of
the substrate. It is a two conductor transmission line with major electric
field component oriented across the slot. Hence it does not support TEM
mode.
• The Electromagnetic wave travels along the slotline which encounters
substrate and air as medium for the transmission. Hence effective
dielectric constant is equal to average of both, i.e. εeff = (εr + 1) /2.
• There are various methods to determine characteristic impedance and
losses in the slotline.
• The slot wavelength is as follows.
λs = λ0/SQRT (εeff)
Slot line
Types of slot lines
Antipodal slotline
Two conductors are printed on opposite sides of the
dielectric substrate in antipodal slotline. Width (W) defined
characteristics of this slotline. Tapered antipodal slotline is widely
employed in tapered slot antennas.
Bilateral slotline
In bilateral slotline, two identical slotlines are printed on both
the sides of the substrate. The characteristic impedance of this
line reduces with substrate height and increases with dielectric
constant. It is used for broadband application due to its low
impedance and matching characteristic with stripline. Need
precise alignment during fabrication process. Performance
degrades if top and bottom slotlines do not overlap exactly.
Slotline Advantages
• Higher order modes are possible to be realized.
• Easy to fabricate and troubleshoot.
• Can be etched along with microstrip line on same PCB.

Slotline Disadvantages
• Slotline is relatively lossy compare to other lines.
• It can not be used for broadband circuit designs as it supports
only TE mode. This mode is dispersive in nature.
Coplanar waveguide
• The Coplanar Waveguide is a planar transmission line.
• It is widely used for microwave Integrated Circuit design.
• Coplanar Waveguide consists of a conductor strip at the middle and two
ground planes are located on either sides of centre conductor. All these lie
in the same plane.
• In coplanar waveguide, EM energy is concentrated within the dielectric .
The leakage of the Electromagnetic energy in the air can be controlled by
having substrate height (h) twice that of the width (S). The coplanar
waveguide supports quasi TEM mode at low frequencies while it supports
TE mode at high frequencies.
• The effective dielectric constant of CPW is same as that of slotline. The
characteristic impedance of a coplanar waveguide is not affected by
thickness and depends on width(W) and space(S). The lowest
characteristic impedance of 20 Ohm can be achieved by maximum strip
width(W) and minimum slot space(S). It typically ranges from 200 to 250
Ohm.
Advantages of Coplanar Waveguide
• Low dispersion
• simple realisation due to etching on one side.
• broadband performance

Disadvantages of Coplanar Waveguide(CPW)

• Fabrication of coplanar waveguide is costlier. As gold ribbons
are needed to suppress higher order modes at every quarter
wavelengths
• Relative thick substrates are needed.
Time domain reflectometry
How it works
How it is applied
Advantages and Disadvantages
COUPLED WAVE EQUATIONS

• analysis of coupled systems

• first derive the wave equations, to reinforce the notion of wave propagation and
• to study the effects of mutual inductance and capacitance
• extension to coupled systems the effects of crosstalk on the propagation of signals in a coupled system.
• Wave Equations
Kirchhoff’s voltage law (KVL) gives the voltage drop across the incremental inductance:

Looking now at the incremental capacitance of the subsection, apply Kirchhoff’s current law to find the change in
current,

Above equation is equivalent to in the time domain. Dividing through by dz gives,

The voltage wave equation is given by

The wave equation for the current

Coupled Wave Equation

• generalize above equations to the n-coupled-line case.
• the voltage drop on line 1 depends on the mutual inductance and the current on the adjacent line , in
addition to the line self-inductance L and driving current .
• Similarly the voltage drop on line 2,
• the equations for the voltage drop across the coupled subcircuit in compact matrix form, where the boldface symbols
represent the compact matrix

• Applying the isolated line method to the current change caused by the capacitances of the coupled line yields
The coupled voltage wave equation is given by,

The current wave equation for the coupled lines,

• Since they are matrices, the product LC is not necessarily equal to CL.
• Second, the compact matrix equations are extensible to an arbitrary number of coupled transmission lines, providing
the means for analyzing practical systems.
Coupled line analysis
• The effective capacitance and inductance will change with different switching patterns in systems where there
is significant coupling between lines.
• This implies that the effective characteristic impedance and propagation delay will also be a function of the
switching patterns.
• We also showed that coupling between lines can result in the appearance of noise on quiet lines. Therefore,
both effects can have switching-dependent impacts on signal quality and timing characteristics of a coupled
system, and we need to develop methods for quantifying them.
• Impedance and Velocity
• the effects that crosstalk-induced impedance and velocity changes have on signal integrity and timing is
explained, and provide a simple method for analyzing multiconductor transmission lines to provide first-order
estimates of that impact.
• Equations for the effective impedances (Z0) and propagation velocities (νp) for each case
Odd- and even-mode electric and magnetic field patterns for a simple
two-conductor system
• Generalized approximations for the effective inductance and capacitance, adopting the matrix notation
The effective impedance and propagation velocity,

Propagation of forward- and backward-coupled noise: (a) initial wave launch; (b) halfway down the line; (c) one full trip down the line; (d) round trip
 MODAL ANALYSIS
• Earlier we introduced the notion of propagation modes in the even- and odd-mode cases for a two-line system.
• When we have more than two lines, the notion of even- and odd-mode signals does not apply directly.
• A system with n coupled lines can propagate n distinct modes, each of which is a function of the electric and
magnetic field strengths (or the capacitances and inductances) and of the driven signals on each of the lines.
• Each mode can have a different effective impedance and propagation velocity.
• We can calculate the modal impedances and velocities.
• Modal decomposition and analysis technique:
Modal decomposition
Modal Impedance and Velocity
Reconstructing the Signal
Modal Analysis
Modal Analysis of Lossy Lines
CROSSTALK MINIMIZATION
• Since all of the major components in an interconnect system (i.e., PCB, packages, connectors) can have
enough crosstalk to harm system performance, we present some crosstalk reduction guidelines.
• Because it is often not possible to reduce crosstalk without affecting system cost, we include discussion of
trade-offs along with reduction techniques in Table 4-4. In particular, we note that in cost-sensitive
applications such as desktop personal computers, adding layers in the printed circuit board represents
significant added cost to the system.
• Another technique that sometimes finds use is the placement of guard traces between signals. These are
connected to the ground return layers using plated via holes in the board. This technique requires careful
attention to the design to provide the desired crosstalk benefit. Inductance of the traces will tend to create a
potential difference at points that are a significant distance from the ground vias. When this occurs, the guard
traces can radiate the coupled energy, thereby defeating their purpose.
Crosstalk Reduction Techniques and Trade-offs
Problems for this unit:

Refer Chapter 4: Crosstalk.

For unit 5: refer chapter 3 and 4 in this book.