2. TRANSMISSION LINE
A transmission line is a connector which transmits energy from one point to another. The study of
transmission line theory is helpful in the effective usage of power and equipment.
In radio-frequency engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to
conduct alternating current of radio frequency, that is, currents with a frequency high enough that
their wave nature must be taken into account.
Transmission lines are used for purposes such as connecting radio transmitters and receivers with
their antennas (they are then called feed lines or feeders), distributing cable
television signals, trunklines routing calls between telephone switching centres, computer network
connections and high speed computer data buses.
While transmitting or while receiving, the energy transfer has to be done effectively, without the wastage of
power. To achieve this, there are certain important parameters which has to be considered.
3. OVERVIEW
Ordinary electrical cables suffice to carry low frequency alternating current (AC), such as mains power, which reverses direction 100 to 120
times per second, and audio signals.
However, they cannot be used to carry currents in the radio frequency range, above about 30 kHz, because the energy tends to radiate off the
cable as radio waves, causing power losses. Radio frequency currents also tend to reflect from discontinuities in the cable such
as connectors and joints, and travel back down the cable toward the source.
These reflections act as bottlenecks, preventing the signal power from reaching the destination. Transmission lines use specialized construction,
and impedance matching, to carry electromagnetic signals with minimal reflections and power losses.
The distinguishing feature of most transmission lines is that they have uniform cross sectional dimensions along their length, giving them a
uniform impedance, called the characteristic impedance to prevent reflections.
The higher the frequency of electromagnetic waves moving through a given cable or medium, the shorter the wavelength of the waves.
Transmission lines become necessary when the transmitted frequency's wavelength is sufficiently short that the length of the cable becomes a
significant part of a wavelength.
At microwave frequencies and above, power losses in transmission lines become excessive, and waveguides are used instead, which function
as "pipes" to confine and guide the electromagnetic waves.
Some sources define waveguides as a type of transmission line; however, this article will not include them. At even higher frequencies, in
the terahertz, infrared and visible ranges, waveguides in turn become lossy, and optical methods, (such as lenses and mirrors), are used to guide
electromagnetic waves.
4. TRANSMISSION LINE THEORY
The key difference between circuit theory and transmission line theory is electrical size.
Circuit analysis assumes that the physical dimensions of the network are much smaller than the electrical
wavelength, while transmission lines may be a considerable fraction of a wavelength, or many wavelengths, in
size.
Thus a transmission line is a distributed parameter network, where voltages and currents can vary in
magnitude and phase over its length, while ordinary circuit analysis deals with lumped elements, where
voltage and current do not vary appreciably over the physical dimension of the elements.
6. TYPES OF TRANSMISSION LINE
There are basically four types of transmission lines −
Two-wire parallel transmission lines
Coaxial lines
Strip type substrate transmission lines
Waveguides
7. TWO-WIRE PARALLEL TRANSMISSION LINES
In this type of construction for two wire transmission lines the insulated spacers are used in order to maintain the distance between the
transmission lines or between the two conducting wire equally throughout.
In this type of transmission line the two conducting wires are kept parallel to each other with the help of plastic material. This is used
throughout between the conducting wires.
In this type of transmission line the rubber piping is used in circular rectangular or square shape. The two conducting wires are kept inside the
rubber at opposite sides of the piping. These conducting wires urn throughout the construction and remains parallel to each other.
8. COAXIAL LINES
It consists of an inner conducting wire which is made of the copper material. Over this conducting wire of copper, there is a
coating of polyethylene or there is a carrying of ethylene material. Then after that, there is an enclosure in a braded wire
which is in the form of a mesh. The outer part is having an enclosure of the surface jacket.
As shown in the given diagram the co-axial cable consists of inner conducting wire made of copper, over this conducting
wire the coating of polyethylene or taplon material is carried out. Then it is enclosed in the braded wire in the shape of
mash. The outer surface of this wire is enclosed in a plastic jacket.
9. STRIP TYPE SUBSTRATE TRANSMISSION LINES
A microstrip circuit uses a thin flat conductor which is parallel to a ground plane.
Microstrip can be made by having a strip of copper on one side of a printed circuit board (PCB) or ceramic substrate while
the other side is a continuous ground plane.
The width of the strip, the thickness of the insulating layer (PCB or ceramic) and the dielectric constant of the insulating
layer determine the characteristic impedance.
Microstrip is an open structure whereas coaxial cable is a closed structure.
Microwave components such as antennas, couplers, filters, power dividers etc. can be formed from microstrip, with the
entire device existing as the pattern of metallization on the substrate.
Microstrip is thus much less expensive than traditional waveguide technology.
10. WAVEGUIDES
A waveguide is an electromagnetic feed line used in microwave communications, broadcasting, and radar
installations.
A waveguide consists of a rectangular or cylindrical metal tube or pipe. The electromagnetic field propagates
lengthwise.
Waveguides are most often used with horn antennas and dish antennas.
They are practical only for signals of extremely high frequency, where the signal wavelength approaches the
cross-sectional dimensions of the waveguide.
11. MAIN PARAMETERS OF A TRANSMISSION LINE
The important parameters of a transmission line are resistance, inductance, capacitance and
conductance.
Resistance and inductance together are called as transmission line impedance.
Capacitance and conductance together are called as admittance.
12. RESISTANCE
The resistance offered by the material out of which the transmission lines are made, will be of considerable amount,
especially for shorter lines. As the line current increases, the ohmic loss (I2Rloss) also increases.
The resistance R of a conductor of length "l" and cross-section "a" is represented as
Where ρ = resistivity of the conductor material, which is constant.
Temperature and the frequency of the current are the main factors that affect the resistance of a line. The resistance of a
conductor varies linearly with the change in temperature. Whereas, if the frequency of the current increases, the current
density towards the surface of the conductor also increases. Otherwise, the current density towards the center of the
conductor increases.
This means, more the current flows towards the surface of the conductor, it flows less towards the center, which is known as
the Skin Effect.
13. INDUCTANCE
In an AC transmission line, the current flows sinusoidally. This current induces a magnetic field perpendicular to the electric
field, which also varies sinusoidally. This is well known as Faraday's law. The fields are depicted in the following figure.
This varying magnetic field induces some EMF into the conductor. Now this induced voltage or EMF flows in the opposite
direction to the current flowing initially. This EMF flowing in the opposite direction is equivalently shown by a parameter
known as Inductance, which is the property to oppose the shift in the current.
It is denoted by "L". The unit of measurement is "Henry H".
Inductive reactance, which is the Ohmic result of inductance, increases with frequency and can cause problems for high
frequency circuits. Thus, the inductance should generally be kept low for efficient operation.
14. CONDUCTANCE
There will be a leakage current between the transmission line and the ground, and also
between the phase conductors.
There is always a certain amount of conductance, because there is no such thing as a perfect
dielectric. That means a certain amount of energy passing down the transmission line appears
at the other conductor.
This small amount of leakage current generally flows through the surface of the insulator.
Inverse of this leakage current is termed as Conductance. It is denoted by "G"
It usually is a very small quantity, because many dielectrics are very good insulators in
transmission line applications. Conductance is represented by a shunt resistor between the
signal wire and the return wire (ground).
15. CAPACITANCE
The voltage difference between the Phase conductors gives rise to an electric field between the
conductors. The two conductors are just like parallel plates and the air in between them
becomes dielectric. This pattern gives rise to the capacitance effect between the conductors.
Capacitive reactance, which is a result of the line capacitance, decreases with an increase in
frequency and causes the propagating signals to be shorted to ground at certain frequencies.
So, the distributed capacitance, as well as the distributed inductance and resistance of
transmission lines should, in general, be minimized.
The flow of line current is associated with inductance and the voltage difference between the
two points is associated with capacitance. Inductance is associated with the magnetic field,
while capacitance is associated with the electric field.
20. Characteristic Impedance
If a uniform transmission line is considered, for a wave travelling in one direction, the ratio of
the amplitudes of voltage and current along that line, which has no reflections, is called
as Characteristic impedance.
28. IMPEDANCE MATCHING
To achieve maximum power transfer to the load, impedance matching has to be done. To achieve this
impedance matching, the following conditions are to be met.
The resistance of the load should be equal to that of the source.
RL=RS
The reactance of the load should be equal to that of the source but opposite in sign.
XL=−XS
Which means, if the source is inductive, the load should be capacitive and vice versa.
29. REFLECTION CO-EFFICIENT
The parameter that expresses the amount of reflected energy due to impedance mismatch in a transmission
line is called as Reflection coefficient.
If the impedance between the device and the transmission line don't match with each other, then the energy
gets reflected. The higher the energy gets reflected, the greater will be the value of reflection coefficient.
33. STANDING WAVE RATIO VSWR
The standing wave is formed when the incident wave gets reflected. The standing wave which is
formed, contains some voltage. The magnitude of standing waves can be measured in terms of
standing wave ratios.
The ratio of maximum voltage to the minimum voltage in a standing wave can be defined as Voltage
Standing Wave Ratio VSWR.
VSWR describes the voltage standing wave pattern that is present in the transmission line due to
phase addition and subtraction of the incident and reflected waves.
Hence, it can also be written as
The larger the impedance mismatch, the higher will be the amplitude of the standing wave. Therefore,
if the impedance is matched perfectly, Vmax:Vmin=1:1
Hence, the value for VSWR is unity, which means the transmission is perfect.
44. EFFICIENCY OF TRANSMISSION LINES
The efficiency of transmission lines is defined as the ratio of the output power to the input power.
45. VOLTAGE REGULATION
The efficiency of transmission lines is defined as the ratio of the output power to the input power.
46. LOSSES DUE TO IMPEDANCE MISMATCH
The transmission line, if not terminated with a matched load, occurs in losses. These losses are many types
such as attenuation loss, reflection loss, transmission loss, return loss, insertion loss, etc
Attenuation Loss
The loss that occurs due to the absorption of the signal in the transmission line is termed as Attenuation loss,
which is represented as
47. LOSSES DUE TO IMPEDANCE MISMATCH
Reflection Loss
The loss that occurs due to the reflection of the signal due to impedance mismatch of the transmission line is
termed as Reflection loss, which is represented as
Transmission Loss
The loss that occurs while transmission through the transmission line is termed as Transmission loss, which
is represented as
48. LOSSES DUE TO IMPEDANCE MISMATCH
Return Loss
The measure of the power reflected by the transmission line is termed as Return loss, which is represented as
Insertion Loss
The loss that occurs due to the energy transfer using a transmission line compared to energy transfer without a
transmission line is termed as Insertion loss, which is represented as
49. LOSSES DUE TO IMPEDANCE MISMATCH
Return Loss
The measure of the power reflected by the transmission line is termed as Return loss, which is represented as
Insertion Loss
The loss that occurs due to the energy transfer using a transmission line compared to energy transfer without a
transmission line is termed as Insertion loss, which is represented as
50. STUB MATCHING
If the load impedance mismatches the source impedance, a method called "Stub Matching" is
sometimes used to achieve matching.
The process of connecting the sections of open or short circuit lines called stubs in the shunt with
the main line at some point or points, can be termed as Stub Matching.
At higher microwave frequencies, basically two stub matching techniques are employed.
51. STUB MATCHING
Single Stub Matching
In Single stub matching, a stub of certain fixed length is placed at some distance from the load. It
is used only for a fixed frequency, because for any change in frequency, the location of the stub
has to be changed, which is not done. This method is not suitable for coaxial lines.
Double Stub Matching
In double stud matching, two stubs of variable length are fixed at certain positions. As the load
changes, only the lengths of the stubs are adjusted to achieve matching. This is widely used in
laboratory practice as a single frequency matching device.
53. MODES OF PROPAGATION
A wave has both electric and magnetic fields. All transverse components of electric and
magnetic fields are determined from the axial components of electric and magnetic field, in
the z direction. This allows mode formations, such as TE, TM, TEM and Hybrid in
microwaves.
The direction of the electric and the magnetic field
components along three mutually perpendicular
directions x, y, and z are as shown in the following
figure.
54. MODES OF PROPAGATION
TEM (Transverse Electromagnetic Wave)
This method is not suitable for coaxial lines. In this mode, both the electric and magnetic fields are
purely transverse to the direction of propagation. There are no components in ′Z′ direction.
TE (Transverse Electric Wave)
In this mode, the electric field is purely transverse to the direction of propagation, whereas the
magnetic field is not.
55. MODES OF PROPAGATION
TM (Transverse Magnetic Wave)
In this mode, the magnetic field is purely transverse to the direction of propagation, whereas the
electric field is not.
HE (Hybrid Wave)
In this mode, neither the electric nor the magnetic field is purely transverse to the direction of
propagation
56. MODES OF PROPAGATION
Multi conductor lines normally support TEM mode of propagation, as the theory of transmission
lines is applicable to only those system of conductors that have a go and return path, i.e., those
which can support a TEM wave.
Waveguides are single conductor lines that allow TE and TM modes but not TEM mode. Open
conductor guides support Hybrid waves.