Session 3

Transmission Lines

Session Speaker:
Dr. Ugra Mohan Roy
[email protected]

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 Session Objectives
• At the end of this session, student will be able to:
– Describe field theory for micro strip and stripline
– Discuss fundamentals of transmission lines, odd and even
transmission lines and reflection in transmission lines
– Differentiate lumped and distributed transmission line

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 Session Topics

• Basic Definitions
• Electromagnetic Signal
• Transmission lines
• Lumped versus Distributed Transmission line
• Microstrip and stripline
• Odd and Even Transmission lines
• Reflection and Transmission lines

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 Electromagnetic Signal

• Two types of EM waves are used

– Low frequency and High Power
– High Frequency and Low power
• Why High frequency? (Bandwidth is proportional to frequency).
• Range of Frequency and corresponding wavelength?

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 Why Knowledge of EM Wave is required
• Application Areas
– Twisted Pair wire -----used in telephone lines ,low data rate, High
EMI, Lossy at RF
– Co-axial Cable--------------Used for LAN, few Mbps, Low EMI,
Moderate loss
– Waveguide-rectangular and circular
– Antenna ------Transmitter and receiver, Smart antenna system,
adaptive array
– Fiber optic communication
– Wireless and mobile communication
– Cellular Communication
– Radar and Remote sensing
– In all the above field a better modeling of EM wave is required.
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 Why transmission lines?
• A transmission line is an interconnect used to guide electromagnetic
wave or electrical energy from one point to another with the intention
of least possible loss and distortion. Transmission lines are extensively
used by RF (Radio Frequency) engineers in the designs of RF circuits and
RF PCBs.
• For high-speed digital systems, the printed circuit board (PCB) or
multichip module (MCM) traces are treated as transmission lines.
• It is no longer possible to model interconnects as lumped capacitors or
simple delay lines, as could be done on slower designs.
• Because the timing issues associated with the transmission lines are
becoming a significant percentage of the total timing margin.
• Great attention must be given to the construction of the PCB so that the
electrical characteristics of the transmission lines are controlled and
predictable.

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 Why Transmission Line?
• To transfer the RF energy from transmitter to antenna, RF engineers use transmission line
in place of normal electric wire or normal PCB trace. A normal PCB trace or electric wire
creates too high a loss and distortion to the electric energy.
• If a transmission line is used instead, it will transfer the energy from the transmitter to the
antenna with almost zero loss of energy.
• If the frequency of the signals traveling on an electric wire is low enough, the electric
voltage on the wire at a given time is same at all points on the wire. Transmission lines are
not essential in such cases.
• If however, the frequency component of the signal traveling is very high and at the same
time the length of the interconnect PCB trace is large, this may create a problem if the
PCB trace is ordinary interconnect instead of transmission line.
• calculate the wavelength corresponding to the frequency component of the signal using
the formula
λ = c/f where, c = speed of propagation, f = maximum frequency component of the signal

If the length of the interconnect PCB is greater than 1/10 th of the wavelength, we must
consider using the transmission line instead of ordinary interconnect.

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 Problem
• Transmitter from IC A has frequency component of 1GHz. The signal from IC A to
another IC B on a PCB, travel at speed of 1.5 x 108 meter /second. Find the
minimum distance above which the signal must be routed as transmission line.

Solution – The wavelength of 1 GHz frequency component is given by

λ = c/f
= 1.5 x 108 (m/second) / 1 x 109
= 0.15 meter

Therefore, the minimum length over which the signal must be routed as
transmission line is given by ?/10 = 0.15 meter or 1.5 cm

Any PCB trace length greater than 1.5 cm or about 0.6 inches must be routed as
transmission line.

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 Transmission Line Structures On PCB

• Transmission line structures seen on a typical PCB or MCM consist

of conductive traces buried in or attached to a dielectric or
insulating material with one or more reference planes.
• The metal in a typical PCB is usually copper and the dielectric is
FR4, which is a type of fiberglass.
• The two most common types of transmission lines used in digital
designs are
– Microstrip
– Stripline.

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 Transmission lines on PCB
• In high-speed systems, control of the electrical characteristics of
the transmission lines is crucial.
• These basic electrical characteristics, is referred as transmission
line parameters.

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 Wave Propagation

• At high frequencies, when the edge rate (rise and fall times) of the digital
signal is small compared to the propagation delay of an electrical signal
traveling down the PCB trace, the signal will be greatly affected by
transmission line effects.
• The electrical signal will travel down the transmission line in the way that
water travels through a long square pipe.
• This is known as electrical wave propagation.

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 RLCG model- A Distributed Model
• Equivalent circuit model of a differential section of a transmission
line of length dz

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 Transmission Lines
• In Transmission lines concept of Transit times is very significant
• R,L, G and C are Primary Parameters
• Z0 and Propagation constant are the secondary constant.
• When frequency increase the attenuation constant increases ,so the
same transmission line become lossy.
• Wave propagation is given as equation

 x  jx
V e e

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 Transmission Line Theory

• Wave Propagation on TL can be approached from an extension

of circuit Theory or from Maxwell’s Equations.

C=Shunt Capacitance/unit length,F/m

Capacitance due to close proximity of two conductors
R=Series Resistance/unit length, Ω/m
(Finite conductivity of the conductor)
L=Series Inductance/unit length,H/m
( Self inductance of the two conductors)
G=Shunt Conductance/unit length,S/m
(Dielectric Loss in the material between the conductors)

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 Two Wire Transmission Line

i ( z, t )

v( z , t )
-
z
z

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 Equivalent Circuit For TL

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 TL Theory- Time Domain Equations

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 Time Harmonic Current and Voltage

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 TL-Basic Circuit Parameters

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 T L Theory- Difference Equation

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 Wave Equations

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 Wave Equations

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 TL Wave Equations

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 Characteristic Impedance

• The characteristic impedance Z0 of a uniform Transmission line

is the ratio of the amplitudes of a single pair of voltage and
current waves propagating along the line in the absence of
reflections
• A transmission line terminated at one end with its characteristic
impedance will appear infinitely long to a source at the other
end

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 Transmission Line Zo

• Zo determines relationship between voltage and current waves

• Zo is a function of physical dimensions and r
• Zo is usually a real impedance (e.g. 50 or 75 ohms)

1.5

1.4 attenuation is lowest

at 77 ohms
1.3

1.2

normalized values
50 ohm standard
1.1

1.0

0.9

0.8

0.7 power handling capacity

peaks at 30 ohms
0.6

0.5
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
characteristic impedance
for coaxial airlines (ohms)

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 Characteristic Impedance

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 Loss Less Transmission Lines

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 Parameters of Transmission Lines

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 Surface Resistance

• Surface Resistance Rs is defined by

Rs =1/
Where  is the conductivity
 is the skin depth

• Physical Interpretation of Surface Resistance Rs ?

• Definition of Skin Depth: The distance by which the amplitude

of current attenuates to ‘1/e’ value

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 Skin depth

2
Skin depth 



Surface Resistance Rs 
2

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 Transmission Line With Terminated Impedance

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 Analogy of Maximum Power Transfer Theorem

• Reflection occurs due to mismatch in the impedance at the

Source (Input) and Load (Output) points
• The measure of reflection is defined through reflection
coefficient, Voltage Standing Wave Ratio
• Reflection Coefficient is the ratio of Amplitude of reflected
wave to the Amplitude of incident wave

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 Reflection Coefficient- Definition

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 Open Circuit (OC) Condition of TL

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 Short Circuit (SC ) Condition of TL

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 Return Loss and VSWR

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 Input Impedance Variation of Terminated TL

• Transmission Line Impedance equation relates the input

impedance of a transmission line to its load impedance ZL ,
characteristic impedance Z 0 , phase constant  , length of line d
and position along the line (z) from the input end
• Input impedance of a transmission line at a position ‘z’ of total
length ‘d ‘ is given by

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 Input Impedance Variation of TL with SC

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 Input Impedance of SC Terminated TL

• Input impedance is purely

imaginary
• Periodic in d (repeats in
multiples of /2)
• At d=0, Zin=0,
d= /4, Zin =
d=/2, Zin=0

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 Input Impedance Variation of TL with OC

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 Input Impedance Variation of Terminated TL

SC OC

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 Input Impedance of TL With its Length

SC OC
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 Basic Form Of Transmission Line

• Planar
– Microstrip
– Stripline
– CPW
• Non-Planar
– Coaxial line
– Waveguide

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 Basic Form Of Transmission Line

• Planar
– Photolithography
– Increased Reliability
– Reduced Cost
– Ease of integration
– TEM or TE/TM mode
– Low power handling
– Dielectric loss
• Non-Planar
– Reduced Loss
– Higher power
– Array Element
– Larger Bandwidth
– Only TE?TM mode

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 Microstrip Line

• One of the most popular transmission line types

• Fabrication through Photolithography
• Easy integration with passive /active components
• Simplistic Geometry
• Cannot support pure TEM wave
• Impossible to achieve phase match between dielectric to air
interface

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 Schematic Microstrip Line

•Dielectric losses are less (when using

identical materials)
•Cheaper and easier to manufacture
•Location of traces on top and bottom layers
leads to easier debugging

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 Microstrip Line – Field Distribution

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 Calculate Characteristic Impedance

• Given Dimensions and material property, to calculate Characteristic

Impedance.

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 Calculate Parameters of Microstrip

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 Microstrip Line- Attenuation

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 Microstrip Line- Design Equations

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 Strip Line

•Greater isolation of transmission lines

•Supports more densely populated designs (traces are smaller, large number of
internal layers possible)
•Requires stricter manufacturing tolerances
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 Strip Line – Field Distribution

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 About Strip Line

• Narrow strip element is held between the two ground

planes
• Supports TEM waves since it has two conductors and
homogeneous dielectric
• Complete confinement of fields within the strip cross
section (Width of GP > 5 times the spacing between GP)

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 Strip Line Design

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 Strip Line Design

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 Propagation velocity, Time and distance

• Electrical signals on a transmission line will propagate at a speed

that depends on the surrounding medium.
• The propagation delay of a transmission line will increase in
proportion to the square root of the surrounding dielectric
constant.
• The time delay of a transmission line is simply the amount of time it
takes for a signal to propagate the entire length of the line.

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 Propagation velocity, Time and distance
c
v
r
1 r
PD  
v c
x r
TD 
c
W here,
v is propagation velocity(m/s)
c is speed of light
 r is dielectric constant
P D  propagation delay
TD  time delay for a distance x
Time delay for equivalent circuit model of the transmission line
TD  LC

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 Effects of Rise time on Reflections

• The rise time will begin to have a significant effect on the wave
shape when it becomes less than twice the delay (TD) of the
transmission line.
– Overdriven case
– Underdriven case

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 Effect of Slow edge rate: Overdriven case

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 Effect of Slow edge rate: underdriven case

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 Reflections From Reactive Loads

• In real systems there are rarely cases where the loads are purely
resistive.
• At High frequency Resistor , capacitor and inductor will change
accordingly.
• Additionally, bond wires and the lead frames of the chip packages
are quite inductive.
• This makes it necessary to understand how these reactive elements
affect the reflections in a system.

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 Transmission Line terminated in a capacitive Load
When a transmission line is terminated with a capacitor, the waveforms at the driver
and load will have different shape from that of the typical transmission line response.

(t TD )
Vcapacitor  2Vi (1  e  ) t  TD
  CZ 0

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 Reflections From a Capacitive Load

(t TD )
RL 
Vcapacitor  2Vi (1  e ) t  TD
RL  Z 0
And the time constant will depend on C L and the parallel
combination of R L and Z 0
C L Z 0 RL
1 
RL  Z 0

Transmission Line terminated in A parallel Capacitive and resistive load

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 Reflection from an Inductive Load.

• When a series inductor appears in the electrical pathway on a

transmission line,, it will also act as a time-dependent load.
• Initially, at time = 0, the inductor will resemble on open circuit.
• When a voltage step is applied initially, almost no current flows
across the inductor.
• This produces a reflection coefficient of 1. The value of the
inductor will determine how long the reflection coefficient will
remain 1.
• If the inductor is large enough, the signal will double in magnitude.
Eventually, the inductor will discharge its energy at a rate that
depends on the time constant τ of an LR circuit, which will have a
value of L/Zo.

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 Series Inductor and Reflection at Node A

Figure shows the reflections from

four different values of the series
inductor.

The magnitude of the reflection

and the decay time increased with
increasing inductor value.

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 Minimizing reflections
• The first method
– decrease the frequency of the system so that the reflections on the
transmission line reach steady state before another signal is driven onto the
line.
– But, for high speed systems since it requires decreasing the operating
frequency, producing a low-speed system.
• The second method
– short the PCB traces so that the reflections will reach steady state in a
shorter time.
– Not practical since it involves using a PCB board with a greater number of
layers, which increases cost. Also shortening the traces may be physically
impossible in some cases.
• The third method
– terminate the transmission line with an impedance equal to the
characteristic impedance of the line at either end of the transmission line
and eliminate the reflections.
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 Termination Methods
On die source Termination

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 Termination Methods
Series Source Termination

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 Termination Methods
Load Termination

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 Termination Methods
AC Load Termination

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 Summary
• RF & MW are internationally designated frequency spectrum. RF generally
extends from 30 – 3000 MHz. MW covers frequencies above 3000 MHz
• At RF and MW Frequencies, Conventional resistor, inductor and capacitor no
longer show spatial uniformity of voltages and currents across the size of
the components
• When the size of the component is only a small fraction of wave length, for
the distribution of voltages and currents, the propagation of waves need to
be considered
• In circuit theory, the R,L and C are treated as lumped elements. In TL theory,
the same parameters are distributed across the length and therefore the
voltages /current can vary across the network component

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 Summary
• In RF/MW Frequency bands, the currents are predominantly confined to the
outer perimeter of the conductor and the region of concentration of these
currents is defined by “skin depth”
• Microstrip line is one of the popular transmission line types with simplistic
structure .It cannot support pure TEM wave. It is impossible to achieve phase
match between dielectric to air interface
• Stripline is another planar transmission line. It supports TEM waves since it has
two conductors and homogeneous dielectric. Complete confinement of fields
within the strip cross section (Width of GP > 5 times the spacing between GP).
• Wave Propagation on TL can be approached from an extension of circuit Theory
or from Maxwell’s Equations
• Condition of Loss less Transmission Line yields R=0, G=0

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