S – Parameters

of
Microwave circuits

Dr. L. Anjaneyulu
Dept of ECE , NITW
 What is a microwave network
• A microwave network is formed when several
microwave devices such as
• Sources
• Attenuators
• Resonators
• Filters
• Amplifiers etc
Are coupled together by transmission line or
waveguide for the desired transmission of
microwave signal
 Network ports
• What is the difference between the port of
low frequency network and microwave
frequency network ?

For low frequency network a port is a pair

of terminals where as for a microwave
network a port is reference plane
transverse to the length of microwave
transmission line
 Network Parameters
• Z, h, Y and ABCD parameters are difficult
to measure for microwave network
because at microwave frequencies the
physical length of the component or line is
comparable to or much greater than the
wavelength.
• so the voltage and current are not well
defined at a given point for a microwave
circuit
 Why Z, Y,h and ABCD parameters are
difficult to measure for MW circuit ?
• 1) Non- availability of terminal voltage and
current measuring equipment
• 2) Short circuit and open circuits are not
easily achieved for a wide range of
frequencies
• 3) Presence of active devices makes the
circuit unsuitable for short and open circuit
 Properties of S - Parameters
• a) Zero diagonal elements for perfect
matched network

For an ideal N-port network with matched

termination sii= 0 since there is no reflection
from any port

so under perfect patched conditions the

diagonal elements of [S] are zero
 Properties ….
b) Symmetry of [S] for a reciprocal network
A reciprocal device has the same
transmission characteristics in either
direction of a pair of ports is
characerized by a symmetric matrix
Sij = Sji ( i not equal to j)
 Properties
• C) Unitary property for a lossless junction
For any lossless network the sum of the
products of each term of any row or of any
column of the S matrix multiplied by its
conjugate is unity
If all
 d) Phase shift property
Device S Complex S-parameters of a
network defined with respect to
the positions of the port or
reference planes

 S11 S12 
S  
1’ 1 2 2’


For unprimed reference planes the S –parameters have
definite complex values

S S
 21 S S22 
S   11 12

 S 21 S 22 
 Phase shift property cont..
If reference planes 1 and 2
Device S
are shifted outward to 1’
and 2’ by electrical phase
shifts
1  1l1
1’ 1 2 2’
2   2l2
The new S matrix is given by

  j1
   j1
0 
 
S 
' e 0
 j 2 
 S  e
 j2 
 0 e   0 e 
 S parameters for some microwave
components
Wave guide sections
The S-Matrix for
ideal sections are

0 1 
S   
1 0 
 S Matrix for 3 – port networks

• Wave guide tees are three port

components. They are used to
connect a branch or sections of the
waveguide in series or parallel with
the main waveguide transmission line
for providing means of splitting and
also of combining power in a
waveguide system
 Two basic types of Tees
• E-plane T
• H-plane T
 S-parameters of E-plane and H-
plane -T

E-plane H-plane

 S11 S12 S13 

 S   S12 S11 S 23 
 S13 S 23 S33 

Because of the
symmetry Sij = Sji
 E-plane T
S31 = S13= - S23 = -S32
S12=S21
 1/ 2 1/ 2 1/ 2 
ai = incident power
 
bi = reflected power
 1/ 2 1/ 2 1/ 2 
I/p power =o/p power 1 / 2 1/ 2 0 

2 2
(1  S33 )  2 S13
If S33 =0 ,
S13 = 1/ 2
 H-plane Tee
In a H-plane tee if two waves are
fed into port 1 and port 2 of the
collinear arms the output wave at
 1/ 2 1/ 2 1/ 2 
port 3 will be in phase and
 
 SReversely
and port
additive.
 1 / 2
 2 in phase.1 /
an input 2 1
wave / 2 
at port 3 will be equally divided into port1

1 / 2 1 / 2  10/ 2   1 / 2 1 / 2 
 
 S    1 / 2 
1/ 2 1/ 2 

1 / 2 1 / 2 0 
 
S- matrix of a power divider
 Directional Coupler

The coupling factor is defined as:                                                       

 S-parameters of DC
• Insertion Loss (IL) = 10*log(P1/P2)=-
20*log(S21)
• Coupling Factor (CF) = 10*log(P1/P4)=-
20*log(S41)
• Isolation (I) = 10*log(P1/P3) = -20*log(S31)
• Directivity (D) = 10*log(P4/P3)=
- 20*log(S31/S41)
Hybrid -T
 Several Losses in Microwave
circuits
• The losses in a microwave circuit can be
expressed in terms of S-parameters

Insertion Loss
(dB)

Pi = Power fed at Port 1; Pr = Power reflected at the same port

 Losses …

Transmission Loss
or Attenuation (dB)

Reflection Loss
(dB)
 Losses ..

Return Loss (dB)