Chapter 11

Transmission Media

Objectives
the types of transmission lines  Calculate the impedance of transmission lines  Calculate velocity of propagation and delay factor  Analyze wave propagation and reflection for various line configuration
 List

 Describe

how standing waves are

produced  Use the Smith chart to find input impedance  Use the Smith chart to match loads to lines

Definition
A

transmission media can be categorized as either guided or unguided.  A transmission line, a guided media, is the conductive connection between system elements that carry signal power  . This conductor may at first appear to be a short circuit, but in fact will react differently when high frequencies are propagated along the line

Metallic transmission lines

Differential, or balanced, transmission system

Balanced lines have equal impedances from the two conductors to ground Twisted-pair and parallel lines are usually balanced

Metallic transmission lines

Differential, or balanced, transmission system

signal voltages

noise voltages

Metallic transmission lines

Single-ended, or unbalanced, transmission system

Unbalanced lines usually have one conductor grounded Coaxial lines usually have outer conductor grounded

Self-education

Ideal Transmission Line

No losses conductors have zero resistance dielectric has zero conductance possible only with superconductors approximated by a short line No capacitance or inductance possible with a real line only at dc with low frequencies and short lines this can be approximated

Two-wire parallel transmission line electrical equivalent circuit

Types of Transmission Lines

 Two-wire

open line  Twisted pair  Unshielded twisted pair (UTP)  Shielded Pair  Coaxial Lines  Balanced/Unbalanced lines

Two Wire Open Line

FIGURE 11-1 Parallel two-wire line.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

FIGURE 11-2 Two-wire ribbon-type lines.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Two Wire Open

    

Also called twin lead or two wire ribbon cable Usually spaced from to 6 inches apart Used as the transmission line from antenna to receiver or antenna to transmitter The end connected to the source is called the generator or input end The end connected to the load is the load or output end.

Electrical Characteristics
 

Depend on the construction Essentially a long capacitor where the capacitance is inversely proportional to the spacing between the wires and directly proportional to the length of the line Capacitive reactance is inversely proportional to the capacitance and frequency

 Thus

the line will have a total impedance resulting from:

Pure resistance caused by the wire itself Capacitive reactance Conductance which passes through the dielectric medium Inductive reactance caused by the magnetic fields which are produced by the passing of current through the wires

FIGURE 11-9 Equivalent circuit for a two-wire transmission line.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

 If

the line is uniform along its length, the resistance and conductance are usually negligible which results in an LC network

FIGURE 11-10 Simplified circuit terminated with its characteristic impedance.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Characteristic Impedance
symbolizes the characteristic impedance.  This impedance can be determined by using Ohms Law: applied voltage divided by the current flowing through the wire.
 Z0

 If

the inductance and capacitance is known, the impedance is given by taking the square root of (L/C)
A line with 4LH/m and 1.5 pF/m will exhibit a characteristic impedance of 51.6 ;

 If

the spacing between the wires and the diameter of one of the conductors and type of dielectric is known, the impedance can be found by:
Z0 =
276 2D log d I

A D/d ratio of 3 and air dielectric will result in an impedance of 215 ;

Line Losses
 When

calculating impedance of lines, losses are often ignored, but in real life these losses cannot be ignored.  Major losses
Copper Dielectric Radiation or induction

2R I
   

losses

Resistance of any conductor is never zero. So when current is passed through the wire, energy is lost in the form of heat Since R = Vl/A These losses can be reduced by reducing the resistance of the wire by
Reducing the length Increasing the cross sectional area of the wire Using a wire with a lower resistivity

Skin Effect


At high frequencies, the I2R losses are generally due to skin effect.
When DC is applied the distribution of electron movement is fairly uniform When AC is applied, the flux density at the center of the wire is greater than at the outer edge thus the the reactance is is also greater. The more reactance the lower the current. If other words, when AC is applied the current will flow faster on the outer edge of the conductor than through the center

Skin Effect


Since inductive reactance is directly proportional to the frequency, the skin effect increases with frequency as well. Since the current is forced to the outside edge, the resistance cross section is also reduced thus increasing the resistance. At sufficiently high frequencies, current will cease to flow in two wire lines

Dielectric Losses
 These

losses are directly proportional to the voltage across the dielectric  These losses also increase with frequency  Losses are lowest in air dielectrics

Radiation or Induction Losses



  

These are caused by the electrostatic and electromagnetic fields surrounding the conductors. The electrostatic fields charge nearby objects The magnetic fields induce an EMF in nearby conductors. These losses can be minimized by terminating the line with a resistive load equal to the lines characteristic impedance

Twisted Pair

What is Twisted Pair?

 Two

insulated wires twisted to form a flexible line without the use of spacers.  It is not used for high frequencies because of the high losses that occur in the insulation  Wet lines increase losses dramatically

FIGURE 11-3 Twisted pair.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Unshielded Twisted Pair

(UTP)

CAT5
   

Category 5 computer networking cable capable of handling a 100MHz bandwidth Most often used in LANs Transmit data at rated up to 100Mbps for a length of 100m CAT5 cable consists of four color-coded pairs of 22 or 24 gauge wires terminated with an RJ-45 connector

CAT5
 The

precision in twisting along the length and at the terminations provide a significant increase in signal transmission performance  Balanced operation of the wire pairs helps to maintain the required level of performance in terms of cross talk and noise rejection

Important CAT5 UTP Parameters

Attenuation
 The

amount of loss in the signal strength as it propagates throughout the conductor

Cross Talk
 Unwanted

coupling caused by overlapping electric and magnetic fields

Near End Cross Talk (NEXT)

A

measure of the level of cross talk or signal coupling within the cable  A high NEXT dB level is desired

Attenuation to Cross Talk (ACR)

 Combined

measure of attenuation and

cross talk.  The larger the bandwidth the higher the ACR  The larger the bandwidth the greater the data capacity

Delay Skew
 Measure

of the difference in time for the fastest to the slowest wire pair in a UTP cable  Proposed for new specifications in CAT6 and CAT7 lines

Power Sum NEXT

 Measures

the total cross talk of all cable pairs ensuring that the cable can carry data traffic on all four pairs at the same time with minimal interference

Return Loss


A measure of the ratio of power transmitted into a cable to the amount of power returned or reflected. Signal reflection is due to impedance changes in the cable link and the impedance changes related to cable loss. CAT5, CAT6 and CAT7 cables must have low return loss specs.

Categories
 CAT

3  CAT5  CAT5e  CAT6  CAT7

Class C Class D Class E Class F

Telephone lines Computer networks Computer networks up to 250MHz up to 600MHz

Wiring Standards for CAT5 and RJ-45

 Defined

by the Telecommunications Industry Association standard TIA568B

Shielded Pair

What is Shielded Pair?



 

Consists of parallel conductors separated from each other and surrounded by a solid dielectric. Conductors are contained within a copper braid tubing that acts like a shield Assembly is covered by a rubber coating for protection from elements and mechanical damage

FIGURE 11-5 Shielded pair.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Shielded Pair
 Principal

advantage is the the conductors are balanced to ground

The capacitance between the cables is uniform through out the line Copper braid shield isolates the conductors from external noise and prevents the signal on the shielded pair cable from radiating to and interfering with other systems

Coaxial Cable

What is Coaxial Cable (coax)?

 Coaxial

cable consists of two concentric conductors separated by a dielectric.  The outer conductor may be a copper or aluminum tube or wire braid and the inner conductor may be a wire or small tube, depending on the type of coax.  The dielectric may be air, plastic or ceramic

Types
 Rigid

or air coaxial line  Flexible or solid coaxial line  Electrical configuration of both is the same

Rigid Coaxial Cable

 Consists

of a wire mounted inside of and coaxially with a rigid tubular outer conductor. (wire within a tube)  The inner conductor is insulated from the outer conductor by insulating spacers or beads, at regular intervals.  The spacers are made of Pyrex or polystyrene, located at regular intervals

FIGURE 11-6 Air coaxial: cable with washer insulator.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Advantages
 Chief

advantage of this line is its ability to minimize the radiation losses  The electric and magnetic fields do not extend outward from the outer conductor  The fields are confined to the space between the two conductors  Noise pick up is also prevented

Disadvantages
 Expensive

to construct  Must be kept dry to prevent excessive leakage between the two conductors, although leakage can be reduced by backfilling the cable with inert gas  Excessive high frequency losses limit the length of line used

Ten Minute Break

Flexible Coaxial Cable

 The

inner conductor consists of flexible wire insulated from the outer conductor by a solid continuous insulating material  Flexibility may be gained if the outer conductor is made of braided wire

Flexible Coaxial Cable

 Polyethylene

plastic as well as Teflon, is used to separate the two conductors.  The use of the plastic for insulation results in greater losses than for the air dielectric but cuts down on losses due to moisture  These losses are much less than for other dielectrics.

FIGURE 11-7 Flexible coaxial.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Characteristic Impedance of Coax

 Z0

138 D log d I

Balanced/Unbalanced Lines

Unbalanced LineCoaxial
 The

electrical signal is carried by the center conductor with respect to the shield or grounded outer conductor

Balanced Linetwo wire

 The

same current flows in each wire but 1800 out of phase with that flowing in the center conductor  Another way to look at it: the currents in the two wires of a balanced line are equal, but flowing in opposite directions.

Common Mode Rejection (CMR)

 Measures

the ability of a balanced line to reject signals flowing in the same direction in both conductors.  Any noise or unwanted signal picked up by the balanced line is picked up by both conductors, thus the noise is effectively canceled out  Practical CMMRs are from 40 to 70dB

Baluns
 Circuits

that convert unbalanced to balanced lines  Typically center tapped transformers  Sections of transmission line may also be used

DC Voltage Propagation

What is happening?
 

Assume an I2R loss of zero When S1 is closed:

VL1 is very high preventing any current to flow to C1 Thus VC1 is zero, making the voltage across the remaining portion of the line also 0

When VL1 decays to 0:

Current will flow to C1, increasing the voltage across C1 to Ebb (source value) At this point VL2 will increase to oppose VC1, preventing C2 from charging until VL2 decays Now C2 will charge through L2 and L1

 This

action will continue until all the capacitors are charged.  Since the line is infinite, there will be infinite capacitors to charge taking an infinite amount of time.  Remember that current is flowing in a finite amount

Velocity of Propagation
 The

electric and magnetic fields associated with the current are said to propagate down the line  The speed at which an electrical signal moves through a conductor is called the velocity of propagation
 Vp

d LC

Delay Line
A

length of a transmission line designed to delay a signal from reaching a point by a specific amount of time =
LC

t

Velocity Constant/Factor
 Velocity

constant or factor is the ratio of actual velocity to velocity in free space =

1 I

 Vf

Wavelength
 The

distance traveled by a wave during a period of time or one cycle =

v f

P

Non-Resonant Line

Traveling DC Waves


 

Nonresonant line is one of infinite length or that is terminated with a resistive load equal in ohmic value to its characteristic impedance All of the energy is transferred down the line and absorbed by the load. The voltage and current waves are called traveling waves and move in phase with one another from source to load. The length is not critical

Traveling AC Waves
The charging of the line when AC is applied is very similar to when DC is applied.  All instantaneous voltages produced by the generator travel down the line in the order in which they were produed.  If the voltage waveform is plotted at any point along the line, the resulting waveform will be a duplicate of the generator waveform  Since the line is terminated with its characteristic impedance, all the energy produced by the source will be absorbed by the load.


Resonant Line

Resonant Line
A

transmission line terminated with an impedance that is not equal to the characteristic impedance  May be terminated with a short or open  Length of line is critical

DCOpen Terminations
 Assume

the characteristic impedance of the line is equal to that of the source  Thus the applied voltage will be divided equally between the source and the line.

Each capacitor will charge to the voltage of the one before it.  No current will flow through inductor L3 and its field will collapse attempting to keep current flowing in the same direction.  The additional current must attempt to flow through C3 doubling the voltage across C3.


This increase in voltage must be felt by C2 and C1 Apparently there is a voltage moving back from the terminals toward the source.

Reflection
 

The abrupt reversal in direction of voltage and current The polarity and amplitude of the reflected wave voltage is the same as that of the incident wave The current is reflected back with an opposite polarity because when the field collapsed, the current dropped to zero. Reflected waves are undesirable

DCto Shorted Lines

 The

voltage reflection is out of phase with the incident voltage wave  The current reflection is in phase with the incident current wave  The resultant load voltage is always zero

Standing Waves:
 Waveforms

Open Line

that apparently seem to remain in one position, varying only in amplitude  At the end:
Current is zero Voltage is maximum Voltage and current are out of phase by 900

Standing Waves:
 At

Shorted Line

the end of a shorted termination:

Current is maximum Voltage is zero Current and voltage are out of phase by 900

FIGURE 11-19 Development of standing waves.

TravelWaves.swf

Reflect.swf

standwave.swf

TwoMediums.swf

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Maximums and Minimums

 Maxs

and Mins occur all along the transmission line  These are predictable if the applied frequency and type of line termination is known.

Standing Wave Ratio

Reflection Coefficient (+)

+ +

= =

r i

ZL  Z 0 ZL  Z 0

VSWR/SWR
 Ratio

of max voltage to min voltage = =

E max E min
1 1 + +

 VSWR  VSWR

Effect of Mismatch
    

Full generator power does not reach the load Cable dielectric may break down as a result of high value standing waves of voltage Existence of reflections increases the power loss in form of I2R losses Noise problems Ghost signals can be created

Quarter Length Transformer

 Used

to match a line to a resistive load  Example

To match a resistive load RL to line with impedance Z0 Use a length of line of impedance Z01 equal to wavelength of signal Z01 =

Z 0 RL

 The

main idea is to reflect two signals equal in amplitude but separated by wavelength  They effectively cancel each other out.  The reflected signals still exist but the source is fooled into thinking otherwise

Electrical Length
 The

length of a line in wavelengths as opposed to physical length  Voltage maximums occur at P/2 intervals  If the line is less than P/2 , the reflections still occur but the line is so short that there is no voltage variation along the conductor.

Example
 For

a 300Hz signal in air

Velocity is 3 x 108 m/s P = 3 x 108 m/s / 300 = 1x106 m or 621mi

 For

a 10GHz signal in air

P = 3 x 108 m/s / 10GHz =3cm or 1.2 in

Smith Chart

Transmission Line Impedance

 Zs 

ZL  jZ 0 tan Fs Z0 Z 0  jZL tan Fs

Fs = distance from the load to the point where it is desired to know the line impedance (electrical degrees)  Complexity is deterrent

Smith Chart
 

Impedance chart developed by P.H. Smith used to analyze transmission lines Two sets of lines
Circular lines tangent to each other at the right hand side of the chart represent resistance Arcs tangent to each other at the right hand side of the chart represent constant reactance

FIGURE 11-25 Smith chart.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Using the Smith Chart



1) normalize the impedance

Divide all impedances by the lines characteristic impedance For a 50 ; line, this means dividing both resistance and reactance by 50

    

2) plot the resulting point on the chart 3) draw the corresponding VSWR circle 4) extend the radius through zLto intersect with the outer scale 5) subtract this number from 0.5 6) divide the length of the transmission line by P/2 retaining the remainder

   

7) subtract value found in step 5 from that found in step 6 8) locate this value on outer circle on top half of chart 9) draw a line from the center to this point 10) the point at which this line intersects the VSWR circle represents zinthe normalized input impedance Multiply zin by Z0 to get the input impedance

FIGURE 11-26 Smith chart for Ex. 11-8.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Matching Impedances with Chart

    

1) normalize load impedance 2) plot zL and draw the VSWR circle 3) move from zL clockwise until line is resistive (crosses horizontal line) 4) this is the point at which the matching P/4 line will be inserted 5) find the normalized and actual resistance of the matching section

FIGURE 11-27 Smith chart for Ex. 11-9.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Stub Tuners
 Single

Stub Tuner: the stubs distance from the load and the location of its short circuit are adjustable to allow a match between line and load  Double Stub Tuner: has fixed stub locations but the position of the short circuits is adjustable to allow a match between line and load

FIGURE 11-28 Stub tuners.

Gary M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Beasley Modern Electronic Communication, 7e

Copyright 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 All rights reserved.

Applications

 Discrete  Baluns  Filters  Slotted

circuit simulations

lines  Time domain reflectrometry

Summary
       

Quiz Review Types of transmission lines Calculate the impedance of transmission lines Calculate velocity of propagation and delay factor Describe how standing waves are produced Use the Smith chart to find input impedance Use the Smith chart to match loads to lines