Professional Documents
Culture Documents
TransmissionLines:ReflectionCoefficientandVSWR
Previous:TxLineModelsand Next:InputImpedanceofa
TxLineTableofContents
Z0 TransmissionLine
RelatedTopics Antennas(Home)
Wearenowawareofthecharacteristicimpedanceofatransmissionline,andthatthetxline
givesrisetoforwardandbackwardtravellingvoltageandcurrentwaves.Wewillusethis
informationtodeterminethevoltagereflectioncoefficient,whichrelatestheamplitudeofthe
forwardtravellingwavetotheamplitudeofthebackwardtravellingwave.
Tobegin,considerthetransmissionlinewithcharacteristicimpedanceZ0attachedtoaload
withimpedanceZL:
Attheterminalswherethetransmissionlineisconnectedtotheload,theoverallvoltagemust
begivenby:
[1]
Recalltheexpressionsforthevoltageandcurrentontheline(derivedonthepreviouspage):
Ifweplugthisintoequation[1](notethatzisfixed,becauseweareevaluatingthisataspecific
point,theendofthetransmissionline),weobtain:
http://www.antennatheory.com/tutorial/txline/transmission3.php 1/5
2017613 AntennaTutorialsReflectionCoefficientandVSWR
Theratioofthereflectedvoltageamplitudetothatoftheforwardvoltageamplitudeisthe
voltagereflectioncoefficient.Thiscanbesolvedforviatheaboveequation:
Thereflectioncoefficientisusuallydenotedbythesymbolgamma.Notethatthemagnitudeof
thereflectioncoefficientdoesnotdependonthelengthoftheline,onlytheloadimpedanceand
theimpedanceofthetransmissionline.Also,notethatifZL=Z0,thenthelineis"matched".In
thiscase,thereisnomismatchlossandallpoweristransferredtotheload.Atthispoint,you
shouldbegintounderstandtheimportanceofimpedancematching:grosslymismatched
impedanceswillleadtomostofthepowerreflectedawayfromtheload.
Notethatthereflectioncoefficientcanbearealoracomplexnumber.
StandingWaves
We'llnowlookatstandingwavesonthetransmissionline.Assumingthepropagationconstant
ispurelyimaginary(losslessline),Wecanrewritethevoltageandcurrentwavesas:
Ifweplotthevoltagealongthetransmissionline,weobserveaseriesofpeaksandminimums,
whichrepeatafullcycleeveryhalfwavelength.Ifgammaequals0.5(purelyreal),thenthe
magnitudeofthevoltagewouldappearas:
http://www.antennatheory.com/tutorial/txline/transmission3.php 2/5
2017613 AntennaTutorialsReflectionCoefficientandVSWR
Similarly,ifgammaequalszero(nomismatchloss)themagnitudeofthevoltagewouldappear
as:
Finally,ifgammahasamagnitudeof1(thisoccurs,forinstance,iftheloadisentirelyreactive
whilethetransmissionlinehasaZ0thatisreal),thenthemagnitudeofthevoltagewould
appearas:
http://www.antennatheory.com/tutorial/txline/transmission3.php 3/5
2017613 AntennaTutorialsReflectionCoefficientandVSWR
OnethingthatbecomesobviousisthattheratioofVmaxtoVminbecomeslargerasthe
reflectioncoefficientincreases.Thatis,iftheratioofVmaxtoVminisone,thenthereareno
standingwaves,andtheimpedanceofthelineisperfectlymatchedtotheload.Iftheratioof
VmaxtoVminisinfinite,thenthemagnitudeofthereflectioncoefficientis1,sothatallpower
isreflected.Hence,thisratio,knownastheVoltageStandingWaveRatio(VSWR)or
standingwaveratioisameasureofhowwellmatchedatransmissionlineistoaload.Itis
definedas:
Thisparameteriscommonlyquotedinantennaspecsheets.Itistypicallygivenovera
bandwidth,sothatyouhaveanideaofhowmuchpowerisreflectedbytheantennaovera
frequencyrange(oralternatively,howmuchpowertheantennaradiates).
LoadCellManufacturerHighAccuracyLoadCell
WeighingIsBelievinggavincc.com
Next:InputImpedanceofaTransmissionLine
Previous:TxLineModelsandZ0
TxLineTableofContents
http://www.antennatheory.com/tutorial/txline/transmission3.php 4/5
2017613 AntennaTutorialsReflectionCoefficientandVSWR
AntennaTutorial(Home)
http://www.antennatheory.com/tutorial/txline/transmission3.php 5/5