Renato Orta

Lecture Notes
on
Transmission Line Theory
October 2009
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS
POLITECNICO DI TORINO
Chapter 2
Parameters of common
transmission lines
2.1 Introduction
In chapter 1 we have obtained the transmission line equations on the basis of a phenomenological
model that contains four primary parameters: L (inductance per unit length, p.u.l.), R (resistance
p.u.l.), C (capacitance p.u.l.), G (conductance p.u.l.). The expressions that yield these parameters
as a function of the geometry of the structure require the solution of Maxwell equations for the
various cases. In this chapter we limit ourselves to a list of equations for a number of common
structures: the reader can consult the books in the bibliography for further details . In particular,
we show only the expressions of the inductance and capacitance p.u.l. The parameters related to
the losses will be shown in chapter 4.
2.2 Coaxial cable
The coaxial cable is a transmission line consisting of two coaxial cylindrical conductors, separated
by a dielectric (see Fig. 2.1). The two conductors, here shown as homogeneous, are often made of
braided small diameter copper wires.
If
r
denotes the relative permittivity of the insulator, the line parameters are given by:
C =
2
0

r
log(D/d)
, L =

0
2
log

D
d

, (2.1)
Z

r
1
2
log

D
d

60

r
log(
D
d
), (2.2)
v
f
=
c

r
, (2.3)
where the logarithms are natural (basis e). Fig. 2.2 shows a plot of Z

, L e C versus the ratio of

the conductor diameters. Fig. 2.1 shows the eld lines of the electric and magnetic elds of the
TEM mode, the fundamental one of this structure viewed as a waveguide. We can observe that
1
2 Parameters of common transmission lines
D
d
Figure 2.1. Coaxial cable. The eld lines of the electric eld are shown by solid lines, those
of the magnetic eld by dashed lines.
Figure 2.2. Parameters of the coaxial cable vs.the geometrical dimensions.
the electric eld conguration is that of a cylindrical capacitor, consistently with the fact that the
TEM mode has zero cuto frequency. If the operation frequency increases, a point is reached in
which higher order modes start to propagate. The maximum frequency for which the coaxial cable
is single mode is approximately
f
max
=
v
f
(D + d)
, (2.4)
The corresponding minimum wavelength is

min
= (D + d). (2.5)
The electric eld in the cable is radial and its magnitude is given by
E(,,z) =
V (z)
log(D/d)
1

2
2 Parameters of common transmission lines
where V (z) is the voltage. Hence the maximum electric eld, not to be exceeded in order to avoid
sparks, is on the surface of the inner conductor and has the value
E
max
=
V (z)
log(D/d)
1
d
Example
Compute the parameters of a cable, with inner conductor diameter d =1.6 mm, outer conductor diameter
D = 5.8 mm,
r
= 2.3.
Applying the previous formulas we get L = 0.2576 H/m, C = 99.35 pF/m, Z

= 50.92 , v
f
/c = 1/

r
= 65.9%, f
max
= 8.5 GHz. The normalized maximum electric eld is E
max
= 485.3V/m if the voltage V
is 1V.
It is to be remarked that the coaxial cable is an unbalanced line, which means that the return conductor
is connected to ground. Hence the voltage of the other conductor is referred to ground.
2.3 Two-wire line
The two-wire line consists of two parallel cylindrical conductors. This structure has a true TEM mode only
if the dielectric that surrounds the conductors is homogeneous and the formulas reported hereinafter refer
to this case. In practice, of course, the conductors are embedded in a thin insulating support structure,
which causes the fundamental mode to be only approximately TEM.
The parameters of the two-wire transmission line, whose geometry is shown in Fig. 2.3 are:
C =

0

r
cosh
1
(D/d)
, L =

0

cosh
1
(D/d), (2.6)
Z

=
1

_

0

r
cosh
1
_
D
d
_

120

r
cosh
1
_
D
d
_
, (2.7)
v
f
=
c

r
. (2.8)
It may be useful to recall that
cosh
1
x = log(1 +
_
x
2
1) log(2x), se x 1. (2.9)
D
d
Figure 2.3. Two-wire transmission line. The eld lines of the electric eld are shown solid,
those of the magnetic eld dashed.
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2 Parameters of common transmission lines
Example
Compute the parameters of a two-wire line, in which the wires have a diameter of 1.5 mm and a separation
of 5.0 mm and are located in air.
we nd that C = 14.84 pF/m, L = 750 nH/m, Z

= 224.71, v
f
= c.
It is to be remarked that the TEM elds are non negligible up to large distance from the line itself,
so that the two-wire line is never isolated from the other nearby conductors, which entails problems of
electromagnetic compatibility. On the contrary, in a coaxial cable with suciently good outer conductor,
the operation of the line is completely shielded from external interference. For this reason, the two-wire
line is always used in a balanced conguration, i.e. the two wires have opposite potentials with respect to
ground.
2.4 Wire on a metal plane
This line consists of a single wire running parallel to a grounded metal plate, see Fig. 2.4a. If the metal
plate were innite, this line would be perfectly equivalent to a two-wire line, because of the image theorem
(Fig. 2.4b). When the ground plane is nite, the equivalence is only approximate, but if its size is much
larger than the distance h between the wire and the plane, the errors are negligible.
d
h
D= 2h
d
(a) (b)
Figure 2.4. (a) Wire on a metal plane and (b) equivalent two-wire transmission line.
The parameters of the two-wire line are:
C =

0

r
cosh
1
(2h/d)
, L =

0

cosh
1
(2h/d), (2.10)
Z

=
1

_

0

r
cosh
1
_
2h
d
_

120

r
cosh
1
_
2h
d
_
, (2.11)
v
f
=
c

r
. (2.12)
Example
Consider a wire with diameter d = 3.2 mm in air, placed at an height h = 5.74 cm on a ground plane.
We nd C = 6.51 pF/m, L = 1.71 H/m and Z

= 512.4 .
4
2 Parameters of common transmission lines
2.5 Shielded two-wire line
To avoid the electromagnetic compatibility problems of the two-wire line, the structure of Fig. 2.5 can be
used. Note that this is a three conductor line (two plus a grounded one). In this case there are two TEM

2h
D
d
Electric field

Magnetic field

Figure 2.5. Shielded two-wire line and eld conguration of the symmetric (balanced) TEM mode.
modes, a symmetric (balanced) one where the potentials of the two inner conductors are symmetric with
respect to that of the outer one, connected to ground, and an asymmetric (unbalanced) one, with dierent
parameters. The parameters for the symmetric mode can be computed from the following equations:
C =

0

r
log
_
2h(D
2
h
2
)
d(D
2
+h
2
)
_, L =

0

log
_
2h(D
2
h
2
)
d(D
2
+h
2
)
_
, (2.13)
Z

=
1

_

0

r
log
_
2h(D
2
h
2
)
d(D
2
+h
2
)
_
, (2.14)
v
f
=
c

r
. (2.15)
Example
Consider a shielded two-wire line with diameter of the outer conductor D = 100 mm, inner conductors
with diameter d = 15 mm e spacing 2h = 50 mm.
Using the previous formulas we get: C= 25.77 pF, L = 0.43 H, Z

= 129.39 .
2.6 Stripline
The stripline consists of a metallic strip placed between two grounded metal planes (Fig. 2.6). This is clearly
an unbalanced structure, which is used only inside components and devices. Since the two planes have the
same potential, this is a two conductor line and the fundamental mode is TEM. The relevant parameters
cannot be expressed in terms of elementary functions. We report below an approximate expression for the
characteristic impedance, which is valid in the case the strip thickness is negligible:
Z

30

r
b
w
eff
+ 0.441b
(2.16)
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2 Parameters of common transmission lines
w
b
Figure 2.6. Stripline geometry .
where the equivalent strip width w
eff
is computed from
w
eff
b
=
w
b

_
0 if w/b > 0.35,
_
0.35
w
b
_
2
if w/b < 0.35
(2.17)
The phase velocity, as for all TEM structures is given by
v
f
=
c

r
. (2.18)
The previous equations are appropriate in an analysis problem, in which the dimensions of the structure
are known. For the design activity, in which the dimensions are to be determined in order for the line
to have a desired characteristic impedance, we can use the following equations, obtained by inversion of
(2.16) and (2.17):
w
b
=
_
x if

r
Z

< 120 ,
0.85

0.6 x if

r
Z

> 120
(2.19)
where
x =
30

r
Z

0.441 (2.20)
Example
Design a stripline with characteristic impedance Z

= 50 , separation between the ground planes b =

0.32 cm,
r
= 2.2. Find then the value of the propagation constant and the wavelength at the frequency
f = 10 GHz and the delay = l/v
f
introduced by line lentgth l = 5 cm.
Since Z

r
= 74.2 (< 120 ) we compute x = 0.830 by means of (2.20) and this is already the value
of w/b. Hence w = 0.266 cm. then the propagation constant is computed from
k =

v
f
=

c/

r
=
2f

r
c
= 3.1065 cm
1
and
=
2
k
= 2.0212 cm, =
l
v
f
=
l

r
c
= 0.247 ns.
Fig. 2.7 shows plots of the characteristic impedance of a stripline where the strip thickness f is non
negligible.
2.7 Microstrip
A microstrip consists of a conducting strip deposited on a dielectric layer, whose lower face is covered with
a metal ground plane, as shown in Fig. 2.8. Since the transverse cross section is not homogeneous, the
6
2 Parameters of common transmission lines
Figure 2.7. Characteristic impedance of a stripline vs. its dimensions.

Ground conductor
h
w
r

Figure 2.8. Microstrip geometry.
fundamental mode is not rigorously TEM. In practice, the longitudinal eld components are very small
with respect to the transverse ones and the so called quasi-TEM approximation is used. Even in this
case, only approximate formulas are available for the characteristic impedance. In an analysis problem, in
which the dimensions of the line are known, we compute rst an equivalent dielectric constant
eff
, which
is a weighted average of the permittivities of air and of the substrate:

eff
=

r
+ 1
2
_
1 +
1
_
1 + 12h/w
_
. (2.21)
The phase speed is computed as always, but exploiting this eective permittivity
v
f
=
c

eff
(2.22)
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2 Parameters of common transmission lines
and the characteristic impedance is given by
Z

=
_

_
60

eff
log
_
8h
w
+
w
4h
_
if
w
h
< 1,
120

eff
_
w
h
+ 1.393 + 0.667 log
_
w
h
+ 1.44
__
if
w
h
> 1
(2.23)
where natural logarithms are used.
For design these formulas are not convenient and the following are used instead. First of all, three
auxiliary quantities are computed:
A =
Z

60
_

r
+ 1
2
+

r
1

r
+ 1
_
0.23 +
0.11

r
_
(2.24)
B =
377
2Z

r
(2.25)
C = log(B 1) + 0.39
0.61

r
(2.26)
Next
w
h
=
_

_
8e
A
e
2A
2
if
w
h
< 2,
2

_
B 1 log(2B 1) +

r
1
2
r
C
_
if
w
h
> 2
(2.27)
Example
Compute the width w and length l of a microstrip with characteristic impedance Z

= 50 , which
introduces a phase shift of 90

at the frequency f = 2.5 GHz. The substrate thickness is 1/20

and
r
=
2.2.
We compute A = 1.159, B = 7.985 and C = 2.056. Moreover, from the rst of (2.27) we get w/h = 3.125.
Since this result is greater than 2, it is not acceptable. From the second, instead, we get w/h = 3.081,
which is in the domain of vality of the equation and hence it is acceptable. From this w = 0.391 cm results.
Next, from (2.21) the eective dielectric constant is computed,
eff
= 1.88. Then the propagation constant
is given by
k =
2f

eff
c
= 71.87 rad/m = 41.18

/cm.
If the phase shift must be kl = /2, we obtain l = 2.19 cm.
Fig. 2.9 and Fig. 2.10 show the plots of
eff
versus w/h in the two ranges of wide and narrow strip, for
various values of
r
of the substrate. Fig. 2.11 and Fig. 2.12 show the analogous plots of the characteristic
impedance Z

.
Note that the eective permittivity
eff
given by (2.21) does not depend on frequency, as it is to be
expected in the case of a TEM mode. If we desire a more accurate model, which takes into account the
frequency dispersion of
eff
due to the longitudinal eld components, we can use the approximate formula
(Getzinger, 1973)

eff
=
r

eff
(0)
1 + (f
2
/f
2
p
) G
(2.28)
where
eff
(0) is the zero frequency value given by (2.21) and the other parameters are
f
p
= Z
0
/(2
0
h) (2.29)
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2 Parameters of common transmission lines
or
f
p
(GHz) = 0.398Z
0
/h(mm) (2.30)
and
G = 0.6 + 0.009Z
0
. (2.31)
where Z
0
is the zero frequency characteristic impedance (in ). The characteristic impedance at the
operating frequency is then computed by (2.23) with this value of
eff
(f).
Figure 2.9. Eective permittivity
eff
versus microstrip dimensions (wide strip approximation).
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2 Parameters of common transmission lines
Figure 2.10. Eective permittivity
eff
versus microstrip dimensions (narrow strip approximation).
Figure 2.11. Characteristic impedance Z

versus microstrip dimensions (wide strip approximation).

10
2 Parameters of common transmission lines
Figure 2.12. Characteristic impedance Z

versus microstrip dimensions (narrow strip approximation).

11