Microwave Engineering

Professor Ratnajit Bhattacharjee

Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Lecture 03
Introduction to Microwave Engineering and Transmission line theory

In the previous lecture, we discussed about the wave propagation in a transmission line and
particularly focused on the characteristics of lossless line.

(Refer Slide Time: 0:54)

In this lecture we discussed about the lossy transmission line, we discussed about a special form
of lossy line which is called Distortionless line and we also discuss the Terminated lossy lines.
(Refer Slide Time: 1:12)

So, we have already seen that for a transmission line, the complex propagation constant is given
by, 𝛾 is equal to 𝛼 + 𝑗𝛽, here this component 𝛼 actually attenuates the wave as it propagates and
𝛽 is the phase constant. So, that is why we called 𝛼 is the attenuation constant and 𝛽 is the phase
constant. Now, if we square this equation on both sides we can write, (𝛼 + 𝑗𝛽)2 is equal to
(𝑅 + 𝑗𝜔𝐿 )(𝐺 + 𝑗𝜔𝐶 ).

Now, if we expand these equations and write both the left and right hand side in the form of real
and imaginary parts and then if we equate these real and imaginary parts we get (𝛼2 − 𝛽2 ) is
equal to (𝑅𝐺 − 𝜔2 𝐿𝐶 ) and 2𝛼𝛽 is equal to (𝜔𝐿𝐺 + 𝑅𝜔𝐶 ).
(Refer Slide Time: 2:45)

So, this is the real and imaginary part separated. Once we have this form, we have two unknowns
alpha and beta to be calculated in terms of the line parameters that is 𝑅, 𝐺, 𝐿, and 𝐶 and also
frequency 𝜔. So, if I solve these equations we get the solutions for 𝛼 and 𝛽, and these are the
general solution for 𝛼 and 𝛽 in a lossy line.

(Refer Slide Time: 3:31)

Now what happens in practical cases, the transmission line losses are usually small and when we
are using short section of transmission line essentially the signal attenuation will not be much
and some approximation can be made to simplify the expression for the parameters 𝛾 and 𝑍0 , for
the case of no loss line. So, we can rewrite the propagation constant in this form and which can
be re-written in the form shown where we have 𝑗𝜔√ 𝐿𝐶 that is taken out and we have written in
𝑅 𝐺
the form , .
𝜔𝐿 𝜔𝐶

For the low loss case we assume that at the operating frequency 𝑅 is very very small compared to
𝑅𝐺
𝜔𝐿 and 𝐺 is very small compared to 𝜔𝐶. And therefore this product term 𝜔2 𝐿𝐶 will be even

smaller and as compared to one it can be neglected. Then once we neglect this term and for the
remaining term we applied Taylor series approximation and retain only the significant terms,
𝑗 𝑅 𝐺
then we can write 𝛾, the propagation constant, approximately 𝑗𝜔√ 𝐿𝐶√1 − 2 (𝜔𝐿 + 𝜔𝐶 ).

So, now what we can do, we can find out the real and imaginary parts of this equation and from
1 𝐶 𝐿
there we find that, 𝛼 is (𝑅√ + 𝐺√ ) and 𝛽 is 𝜔√ 𝐿𝐶.
2 𝐿 𝐶

(Refer Slide Time: 6:08)

So, if we look at the expression for 𝛼 and 𝛽, we find that attenuation constant 𝛼 now does not
depend upon 𝜔, it depends only on the transmission line parameters and the phase constant 𝛽
varies linearly with 𝜔. And characteristic impedance 𝑍0 for such line can also be found out and
 𝑅
𝐿 +1 𝑅 𝐺
𝑗𝜔𝐿
we write 𝑍0 is equal to √𝐶 √ 𝐺 and this with respect to 1 will be very small similarly,
+1 𝑗𝜔𝐿 𝑗𝜔𝐶
𝑗𝜔𝐶

𝐿
that term also will be very small compared to 1 and 𝑍0 can be approximated as √ .
𝐶

(Refer Slide Time: 7:21)

Now we come to a very special case of transmission line which is known as Distortionless line.
So we have seen in general 𝛼 and 𝛽 for a transmission line are complicated function of 𝜔 the
angular frequency. When 𝛼 varies with 𝜔 different frequency components of a signal if it is
present will get attenuated to different extent. Similarly, if 𝛽 is not a linear function of 𝜔 that is
of this form 𝛽 is equal to some a𝜔.

𝜔
The phase velocity 𝑣𝑝 which is given by of the individual frequency components will vary
𝛽

giving rise to dispersion. So, we find that, if alpha is varying with 𝜔 and 𝛽 is not a linear
function of 𝜔, in that case both the attenuation and the phase velocity for different frequency
component will be different. However, a special condition exists for a lossy line that can have
attenuation constant independent of frequency and phase constant varying with 𝜔 linearly. And
these type of lines, if we can realize, they will not distort the signal and therefore this type of
lines are called Distortionless line.
(Refer Slide Time: 9:20)

So, let us assume that the transmission line parameters we have designed in such a way that they
𝑅 𝐺
satisfy the condition is equal to . So, we have designed the transmission line to satisfy this
𝐿 𝐶

requirement. In that case we once again write 𝛾 the propagation constant in this form where we
𝑅 𝐺 𝑅 𝐺
have the terms and . Then since, is we can club these two terms and we get (1 −
𝑗𝜔𝐿 𝑗𝜔𝐶 𝐿 𝐶

2
𝑅
𝑗( )) .
𝜔𝐿

𝑅
And therefore, 𝛾 expression now simplifies to 𝑗𝜔√ 𝐿𝐶 (1 − 𝑗 (𝜔𝐿 )). So if we compute the 𝛼 and

𝐶
𝛽 the real and imaginary part of 𝛾, we get 𝛼 to be equal to R,C by L 𝑅 √𝐿 and 𝛽 equal to 𝜔√𝐿𝐶.
So, we find that 𝛽 is now varies linearly with 𝜔 and 𝛼 does not contain any 𝜔 term. So this is a
specific condition in a transmission line and if this condition can be achieved then there would
not be any distortion of the signal.

Please note that although, we are considering in terms of the single frequency 𝜔, when a signal is
transmitted this signal will have multiple frequency, more than one frequencies, practical signal
which are used for communication and if this condition is satisfied then all frequency
components of that signal will be attenuated, there strength will be reduced but they will be
attenuated equally.

Similarly, the phase shift beta being a linear function of 𝜔 will result in to phase velocity which
same for all the frequency components of the signal. So, the signal waveform will not get
𝑅
distorted. And that is why we call this type of transmission line having this property of 𝐿 is equal
𝐺
to 𝐶 as Distortionless line.

(Refer Slide Time: 12:55)

𝑅 𝐺
With this condition is equal to is satisfied, let us see what happens to the characteristic
𝐿 𝐶

𝑅+𝑗𝜔𝐿
impedance 𝑍0 , of the line. The characteristic impedance 𝑍0 is defined as √𝐺+𝑗𝜔𝐶 . Now we can

write this expression in to the form shown where we find that in the numerator under the root
𝑅 + 𝑗𝜔𝐿 is same as 𝐺 + 𝑗𝜔𝐶 in the denominator. And these two terms will get cancel, finally we
𝐿
get 𝑍0 equal to √𝐶. And characteristic impedance becomes real and is very same as that of the

Lossyless line. So, this is an interesting property of the characteristic impedance of the
Distortionless line.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:19)

So, let us now consider another case when a transmission line having a propagation constant 𝛾
and characteristic impedance 𝑍0 , is terminated to a load impedance 𝑍𝐿 . We set that reference
distance 𝑧 is equal to 0 on the load itself and we see what happens at a distance 𝑧 is equal to −𝑙.

So, the expression for voltage and current wave on this lossy line can be given as, here, 𝛤 is the
𝑍𝐿 −𝑍0
reflection co-efficient at the load and we have seen that 𝛤 is equal to . Now, if you are
𝑍𝐿 +𝑍0

interested to know the reflection coefficient at a distance 𝑙 from the load going towards the
negative 𝑧 direction, then we can write Γ(𝑙 ) is equal to 𝛤 the load reflection coefficient
multiplied by 𝑒 −2𝛾𝑙 and this can be written in this form and therefore the |Γ(𝑙 )| will be |Γ|𝑒 −2𝛼𝑙 .
(Refer Slide Time: 16:34)

We can compute the input impedance of a lossy transmission line as follows, we consider a
distance 𝑙 from the load and we can write 𝑍𝑖𝑛 to be equal to 𝑉(𝑧 = −𝑙) divided by 𝐼(𝑧 = −𝑙)
and then we substitute the equations for the voltage and current and then replacing the reflection
𝑍 −𝑍
coefficient 𝛾 expression by 𝑍𝐿 +𝑍0 and reorganizing the terms we get in this form.
𝐿 0

And finally we find that the input impedance expression comes in terms of hyperbolic functions
and from this stage if we divide by 2 cosh 𝛾𝑙 we get a more compact form of the input
𝑍 +𝑍 tanh 𝛾𝑙
impedance of a lossy transmission line which is given by 𝑍𝑖𝑛 is equal to 𝑍0 𝑍𝐿 +𝑍0 tanh 𝛾𝑙. Please
0 𝐿

note that when 𝛼 equal to 0 then this tanh 𝛾𝑙 will be tanh 𝑗𝛽𝑙 and which can be finally written as
𝑗 tan 𝛽𝑙, from this expression we will get the expression for the input impedance of the line that
we derive for the Lossless case.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:03)

Let us now consider the power in a terminated lossy line. The power that is delivered to the input
of the terminated line at the position 𝑧 = −𝑙 can be written as 𝑃𝑖𝑛 equal to half real part o f
𝑉(𝑧 = −𝑙) 𝐼 ∗ (𝑧 = −𝑙). And when we substitute once again the expression for the voltage and
the current then we can get and only retain the real part, we get the expression for the input
power at Z is equal to minus L.

And this is been written in this particular form. Now if we use our earlier relation of Γ(𝑙 ) =
|Γ|𝑒 −2𝛼𝑙 , we can represent, here please note in the previous equation the power is in terms of
reflection coefficient gamma at the load, whereas in this expression the power is in terms of the
reflection coefficient at (𝑧 = −𝑙).
(Refer Slide Time: 21:18)

So, once we get the input power, we proceed to calculate the power that is delivered to the load,
2
1 |𝑉0+ |
this is given by 𝑅𝑒{𝑉 (𝑧 = 0)𝐼 ∗ (𝑧 = 0)} and we can write this as (1 − |Γ|2 ), where have
2 2

the Γ is the load reflection coefficient.

The difference in the power corresponds to the power lost in the line. Please note that in Lossless
case we have power only delivered the load, but in case of lossy transmission line as the wave
propagates because of this attenuation factor alpha, some power will be dissipated throughout the
line and whatever power we compute at (𝑧 = −𝑙) and the power that we compute at the load
position. So, if we take the difference of these two power, that will be giving as the power lost in
the line. So, 𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 is p in expression which we have already computed minus 𝑃𝐿 and this can be
found out by substituting the expressions for 𝑃𝑖𝑛 and 𝑃𝐿. And after rearranging these terms we
can write the 𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 into two components. The first component it gives the power lost by the
incident wave, and the second component is the power lost by the reflected wave.

So, in a transmission line we will have both the waves present and both incident and the reflected
wave, because of the attenuation in the line we will lose power and these two expressions
account for the power lost by the incident and the reflected component of the wave.

𝑃𝐿 is the load power which is finally delivered and 𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 is the total power loss because of the
incident and reflected wave. So this brings us to the end of our discussion about the lossy line.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:52)

In the next lecture we are going to cover, what is known as Smith chart? The basics of smith
chart. Smith chart is a widely used graphical tool for solving transmission line problems and in
the next class we will discuss about the Smith chart.