A Tutorial on Transmission Line Transformers

by
Chris Trask / N7ZWY
Sonoran Radio Research
P.O. Box 25240
Tempe, AZ 85285-5240
Email: [email protected]
Expanded and Revised 14 August 2005

Introduction

as powdered iron or ferrite [8, 9] to the TLT,

both the low frequency limit and the high frequency limit are improved [5], and when lowloss high permeability ferrites are used alongside good quality semi-rigid coaxial cable,
bandwidths of four decades or more are
achievable. [10].

The concept of transmission line transformers (TLTs) has been a distinct element of
RF circuit design at least since 1944 when
Guanella disclosed an impedance transformer
of novel design which consisted of a pair of
interconnected transmission lines [1]. TLTs
have been found to possess far wider bandwidth and much greater transmission
efficiencies by arranging the windings of the
TLT to have uniform transmission line properties. In general, these devices are widely
used for matching networks for antennas and
amplifiers in the HF and VHF bands [2], and
their low losses (a fraction of a dB) makes
them especially useful in high power circuits
[3].

Misconceptions
There are a number of misconceptions
regarding the design and application of TLTs,
amongst which are:
...it is impossible to build a 4:1 ratio current
balun that uses two 1:1 baluns on a single core
[11].
Its well established (that) any balun made up
of series / parallel transmission lines requires
different voltages from the start to finish of each
transmission line [12].

Typical structures for TLTs consist of

parallel wires [4], coaxial cable, or bifilar
twisted wire pairs [5, 6], with the latter being
most popular as the characteristic impedance
can easily be determined by the wire diameter, the insulation thickness, and, to some
extent, the twisting pitch [6, 7]. In the case of
using coaxial cable transmission line having
the correct characteristic impedance for the
TLT, the theoretical high frequency bandwidth
limit is reached when the cable length comes
into the order of a half wavelength (/2), with
the overall achievable bandwidth being about
a decade [5].

It is quite impossible to build a current balun

of any ratio other than 1:1 using multiple transmission line transformers on a single core unless flux leakage between transmission lines
is terrible [13].
It (is) impossible to build anything but a 1:1
ratio current balun when multiple transmission
line transformers are placed on a single core
[14].
It is physically impossible to build a transmission line current balun other than 1:1 on a single core when the windings have mutual coupling through the core [15].

By introducing magnetic materials such

1

wavelength (/2) with the overall achievable

bandwidth being about a decade [7].
Low Frequency Bandwidth Limit
The low frequency bandwidth limit of a
TLT made with coaxial cable is determined
by way of the magnetising inductance of the
outer surface of the outer conductor, which
results in the low frequency model illustrated
in Fig. 2 [2, 18]. Here, the transmission line
proper is represented by the ideal 1:1 transformer. The resistance R0 represents the
losses of the transmission line, and the inductance Lac represents the magnetizing inductance of the outer surface of the outer
conductor. Note that there is no parallel inductance for the inner conductor, which is due
to the fact that the series inductances of the
inner conductor and the inner surface of the
outer conductor are part of the transmission
line proper [18].

Figure 1 - Transmission Line in

Transverse (TEM) Mde
In order to avoid having these and other
misconceptions regarding the design and applications of TLTs become widespread, Ill provide here a fairly extensive tutorial on the
subject, beginning with the fundamental concepts, then practical design considerations,
followed by a brief synthesis procedure which
will include some examples.
Fundamental Concepts
The TLT operates by transmitting energy
by way of the transverse (or TEM, meaning
Transverse ElectroMagnetic [16], also known
as Transverse Electric and Magnetic [17])
transmission line mde, rather than on the
more familiar coupling of flux as with a conventional transformer [3], and Fig. 1 illustrates
this concept in generalised form, where the
two lines represent the two conductors of a
transmission line, regardless of whether it is
made of parallel wires, twisted wires, coaxial
cable, or any other means. Here, the currents in the two conductors are equal in magnitude and opposite in phase, while the
voltages across the length of the two conductors are equal in both magnitude and phase.
In the TLT, the windings serve to eliminate, or
at least substantially reduce common-mde
currents from the input to the output [5].

An approximation to the magnetizing inductance can be made by considering the

outer surface of the coaxial cable to be the
same as that of a straight wire (or linear conductor) which, at higher frequencies where
the skin effect causes the current to be concentrated on the outer surface, would have
the self-inductance of [19]:
2l

L ac = 2l ln 1 nH
r

(1)

where l is the length of the coaxial cable in

As was previously mentioned, the theoretical high frequency bandwidth for a TLT
made with coaxial cable having the correct
characteristic impedance is reached when the
cable length comes into the order of a half

Figure 2 - Low Frequency Model of

1:1 Transmission Line Transformer
Using Coaxial Cable
2

using commercial coaxial transmission line.

From (1) and (2) we can now estimate
the low frequency bandwidth limit by:
fL =
Figure 3 - Low Frequency Model of
1:1 Transmission Line Transformer
Using Twisted or Parallel Wires

The introduction of magnetic materials

such as powdered iron or ferrite improves the
low-frequency bandwidth limit of TLTs made
with coaxial cable by increasing the magnetically induced inductance of the conductors
by approximately:
L ac = L ac

(4)

where Lac is the apparent magnetization inductance of the coaxial transmission line and
r is the relative permeability of the ferrite material.

A similar low frequency model for TLTs

using twisted or parallel wires is shown in Fig.
3 [22]. Here, the model is symmetrical as both
conductors are exposed to any magnetic
material and therefore contribute to the losses
and low frequency characteristics of the TLT.

For TLTs made with twisted or parallel

wires, the introduction of magnetic materials
is viewed as increasing the length of the transmission line by approximately:

This is a matter that is understood by

way of sufficient practical experience more
than anything else. As a general rule, the
length of the transmission line is generally
kept to no more than an eighth of a wavelength (/8) at the highest frequency for the
application.

l = l

(5)

where l is the apparent length of the transmission line.

At lower frequencies the response of the
TLT is dominated by the effect of the magnetising inductance for all windings [2, 5]. Additionally, the transverse transmission line mde
works as long as the current on the outside
surface of the outer conductor of the coaxial
cable is negligible [5], and the considerable
magnetic losses of the magnetic material dissipates these outside surface currents,
thereby improving the high frequency bandwidth limit.

For best performance, the characteristic impedance of the transmission lines used
in the TLT should be equal to the geometric
mean of the input and output impedances:
Zin Z out

(3)

Magnetic Materials

cm and r is the radius of the outer surface of

the outer conductor in cm. This inductance
is, as stated, for a straight conductor, therefore it will generally increase when the coaxial cable is formed into various shapes such
as a helix, making the inductance Lac of (1) a
lower limit in the design process.

Z TL =

Z TL
2 L ac

(2)

although nonoptimal transmission line characteristic impedances may be used provided

that the increased losses, degraded return
loss, and reduced bandwidth are acceptable,
which is sometimes a necessary tradeoff when

Several transmission lines of a trans3

Figure 6 - Order-1 Transmission Line

Transformer Used as a 1:1 Phase Inverter
Figure 4 - Voltage Transformation Ratios
of the First Four Orders of TLTs
(from Rotholz [6])

which consists of m connected lines. A TLT

of order (m + 1) is obtained by connecting an
additional transmission line to the terminals
of an order-m TLT, in parallel at one end and
in series at the other end [6]. The voltage
transformation ratios of the first four orders
of TLTs are shown in Fig. 4.

former may be wound on a single magnetic

core, as was demonstrated by Ruthroff [6, 20],
provided that the voltages and currents of
each transmission line in the transformer are
identical.

Transmission Line Transformer

Order and Synthesis

A TLT of order-1 is a single transmission line [6], and applications of order-1 TLTs
are shown in Fig. 5 as a device commonly
referred to amongst radio amateurs as a
choke balun, where the floating load Zout receives the equal and opposite currents from
the output terminals of the TLT. Since the
voltages along the length of both sides of the
TLT must be equal, the voltage along the
length of the TLT is half the input voltage,
therefore causing the output terminal voltages
to be +v/2 and -v/2. This convenient form of
balun will work equally well with symmetrical
(balanced) loads.

The number of transmission lines which

comprise a TLT is termed the order of the TLT.
An order-m TLT is a two-terminal pair device

The order-1 TLT is also shown in Fig. 6

as a 1:1 phase inverter, and again in Fig. 7
as a 1:1 current balun, which has output cur-

Figure 5 - Order-1 Transmission Line

Transformer Used as a 1:1 Choke Balun

Figure 7 - Order-1 Transmission Line

Transformer Used as a 1:1 Current Balun

In practice, the magnetic material is selected so that the ferroresonance frequency

of the magnetic material is well above the low
frequency bandwidth limit of the transmission
line by itself. As an example, the ferroresonance frequency of Fair-Rite type 43 material is approximately 50MHz with the initial permeability (i) peaking around 2MHz, so we
would choose a coaxial cable length such that
its low frequency bandwidth limit is around
10MHz to 20MHz, just to be safe.

Figure 10 - The Guanella 1:4 Impedance

Ratio Transmission Line Transformer
(single core realisation)

Figure 8 - Order-2 Transmission Line

Transformer Used as a 2:1 Current
(1:4 Impedance) Balun

the input voltage, and the input current is twice

the output current, thus the impedance ratio
is 1:4 (1:r 2). A similar analysis can be followed
for Fig. 9. Since the voltages and currents
for all sections of the 1:r voltage ratio are identical, this class of order-r TLT can be constructed on a single core.

rents that are equal in magnitude and opposite in phase regardless of the potentials at
the output terminals with regard to the ground
connection on the unbalanaced (input) side
[21].

The synthesis procedure for an arbitrary

integer voltage ratio is fairly simple. An H : L
(H > L) voltage ratio TLT is decomposed into
an (H - L):L ratio TLT and a transmission line
which is connected in series with the (H - L)
side and in parallel with the L side. The procedure is repeated until a 1:1 order-1 TLT is
reached [6].

TLTs of r :1 voltage ratio are the simplest configuration; they consist of r transmission lines, all of them connected in series at
one end and in parallel at the other [6]. Fig. 8
and Fig. 9 shown the connections for TLTs
having voltage (and current) ratios of 1:2 (1:4
impedance) and 1:3 (1:9 impedance), respectively. In Fig. 8 it is obvious from the voltages
and currents that the output voltage is twice

Fig. 10 illustrates the connections for another form of order-2 TLT having a 1:2 voltage transformation ratio (1:4 impedance ratio) commonly known as the Guanella 4:1 impedance ratio transformer [1, 4, 22], where
an additional transmission line has been
added to the order-1 1:1 choke balun of Fig.
5. Notice here that the added transmission
line is connected in parallel on the left and in
series on the right. This device is very popular amongst radio amateurs, and when used
with a floating load such as an antenna it may
be constructed on a single core as the
voltages and currents for the two transmission lines are identical.
Figure 9 - Order-3 Transmission Line
Transformer Used as a 3:1 Current
(1:9 Impedance) Balun

Fig. 11 illustrates the connections for an

order-3 TLT having a voltage ratio of 3:2 (im5

pedance ratio of 2.25:1), where an additional

transmission line has been added to the order-2 Guanella 1:2 voltage ratio TLT of Fig.
10. Notice here that the added transmission
line is connected in parallel on the right side
and in series on the left.
Fig. 12 illustrates the connections for an
order-4 TLT having a voltage ratio of 3:5 (impedance ratio of 1:2.78), where an additional
transmission line has been added to the order-3 3:2 voltage ratio TLT of Fig. 11. Notice
here that the added transmission line is connected in parallel on the left side and in series on the right.

Figure 11 - Order-3 Transmission Line

Transformer Having a 3:2 Voltage
(2.25:1 Impedance) Ratio

Additional forms of order-2, order-3, and

order-4 TLTs are possible, the ones shown
here being used as examples. Many rigorous synthesis procedures have been published, such as those by McClure [23, 24],
Myer [25], and Gluszczak [26], as well as a
synthesis procedure for designing TLTs having fractional transformation ratios [27].
Closing Remarks
The design and application of transmission line transformers using multiple sections
of transmission line having identical lengths
and characteristics is an establish element of
RF design and has been part of the technology for over 60 years, beginning as early as
the impedance transformer published by
Guanella [1]. TLT realizations using magnetic
materials to extend the low and high bandwidth limits can have frequency bandwidths
of four decades or more, The technology and
synthesis procedures are readily available
and easily understood even by those having
entry level experience in the profession of RF
circuit design.

Figure 12 - Order-4 Transmission Line

Transformer Having a 3:5 Voltage
(1:2.78 Impedance) Ratio

References
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