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Luke Dahlman
EE418
Lab Report 1
10/1/14
Introduction
The purpose of this lab was to familiarize ourselves with Time Domain Reflectrometers. During this
course of this lab different circuit elements should be used to identify how signals are reflected. Along
with these circuit elements, open and short circuit situations shall be studied. Individuals should be able
to identify circuit elements based upon the reflection of the signal as seen by the reflectrometer. Also
transmission lines shall be simulated with a RG-400/U cable and the length of the cable shall be found
by the signals reflection.
Lab Steps:
To start the lab we were given a piece of RG-400/U cable that we approximated to a length of 1.3
meters. The cable has an internal impendence of 69.5%. This means that a signal will travel at a velocity
of 69.5% the speed of light. A signal must travel the entire length of the line before it is reflected back to
the reflectrometer. We proved this by sending a signal through the line and measuring the time it took
before the signals reflection reached the reflectrometer, knowing how fast the signal traveled through
the line. The reflectrometer gave the following graph:
It was then noted that the signals reflection reached the
reflectrometer (shown in the red circle to the left) 11.45ns
after leaving the machine. In this time the signal traveled
69.5% the speed of light down and back the line. Using this
information we were able to calculate the length of the
line to be ~1.2meter.







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Once we became comfortable with the simulated transmission line, we started to add different
components to the end of the line. Using the facts we knew about how signals and reflected in open and
short circuit circumstances and the workings of capacitors and inductors, we were able to prove our
thoughts with the reflectrometer with the following results:
Known:
Reflection of a Short circuit: Destructive interference

Reflection of an Open circuit: Constructive interference

5.6pF Capacitor:
As seen in the image to the left, a capacitor first acts
as a short. This is proved by the dip seen in the red
circle. The short does not allow any of the signal to be
reflected and momentarily brings the entire signal to
0 volts. As the voltage builds in the capacitor more
and more of the signal is reflected back to the
reflectrometer and the capacitor acts more like an
open circuit.











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100nH inductor:
Opposite the capacitor, an inductor acts like an open
circuit at first reflecting the entire signal back as seen
in the red circle to the left. The reflected signal then
weakens as the inductor acts less like an open circuit
and more like a short circuit.










We then experimented with capacitors and inductors in series and in parallel, as seen below:









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As expected the capacitor was reflected first (first in the line series connection) and is shown in the
green oval above while the inductors reflection is shown in the red oval. These reflections follow the
same format that was identified for the particular components earlier in this lab.
Conclusion:
The first major take away from this lab was how to use a Time-Doman-Reflectrometer. This lab also
helped concrete the concept that time and length are related when it comes to transmission lines. We
proved this by solving the length of a line by measuring the time it took for a signal to be reflected by
the line. Also, the speed that a signal travels in a line depends upon the internal impendence of the line.
We were also able to identify components in a circuit based upon the signal reflection that these
components gave.