Microstrip Line

Microstrip Line:
   It is a transmission line that is fabricated using Printed Circuit Board Technology.
   It is formed over a dielectric substrate that separate the conducting strip from ground plane.
   It convey the microwave frequency signal. Microwave components can be formed from micro-strip such
as antenna, filters, Power dividers and couplers etc. these exist as the pattern of materialization on the substrate.
Figures show that area A is the Conductor, area B is Air, area C is Dielectric separating conductor from Ground Plane D. 

Disadvantage:
1.  Microstrip Line has lower power handling capacity than wave guide.
2.  These are susceptible to cross talk as they are not enclosed like waveguide.

Strip Line

Strip Line:
     A pair of ground planes, sandwiching conductor to form a Strip Line. This form is much like coaxial cable. To form a strip line, circuitry is etched on a substrate that has grounding plane on the opposite site, then adhesively attached second substrate on the top to form second ground plane. Strip Line is most often a " soft-board" technology, but using low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC).

Advantage:
1.  Isolation between adjacent traces is achieved to avoid interference.
2.  Can be designed for circuits using frequencies range 10Mhz - 1 Ghz.

Disadvantage:
1.  It is much harder and more expensive to fabricate than micro-strip line.
2.  For impedance like 50 OHM, the strip line width is much narrower because of second ground plane.

Skin Effect, Characteristic Impdeance

   1.       Skin Effect:

The tendency of an alternating electric current to distribute itself within a conductor so that the current density near the surface of the conductor is greater than that at its core is skin effect.

                That is, the electric current tends to flow at the skin of the conductor skin effect causes the effective resistance of the conductor to increase with the frequency of the current. Skin effect is due to the eddy currents set up by the A.C. current.

   2.       Wave Guide:

The skin effect phenomenon has led to the development of hollow conductor known as wave guide.

Wave guide is a structure that guides waves. Wave guide can be constructed to carry waves over a wide portion of electromagnetic spectrum, but are especially useful in the microwave ranges. Depending on the frequency, they can be constructed from either conductive or dielectric materials. Wave guides are used for transferring both power and communication signals.

   3.       Characteristic Impedance:

The characteristic impedance of a uniform transmission line, usually written as Zₒ, is the ratio of the amplitudes of a single pair of voltage and current waves propagating along the line in the absence of reflections. The SI, units of characteristic impedance is ohm.

                “The characteristic impedance of a transmission line, Zₒ is the impedance measured at the input of this line when its length is infinite under these conditions the type of termination at the far end has no effects.”

The characteristic impedance of an iterative circuit consisting of series and shunt elements is given by

                                               

Z = Series impedance per section = R +jWL  Ω/m

Y = Shunt admittance per section = G + jWC  S/m

                                                    

At radio frequencies the resistive components of equivalent circuit become insignificant and the Zₒ reduces to,

                                                     

It shows that this characteristic impedance is resistive at radio frequency.

 

   4.       characteristic impedance for Parallel Wire Line:

For Parallel wire line the characteristic impedance is as under;

                                                Zₒ=276log(2D/d) Ω                                            

   5.       characteristic impedance for Coaxial Line:

the characteristic impedance for coaxial line is as under:

                                               

Where K is dielectric Constant of insulation.

Type of Transmission Lines

Practical types of Transmission lines. As follow.

    1)       Coaxial Cable

    2)       Microstrip

    3)       Stripline

    4)       Balanced Line

a.       Twisted Pair

b.      Quad, star Pair

c.       Twin-lead

d.      Lecher Line

     5)       Unbalanced Line (Single-Wire Line)

     6)       Waveguide

     7)       Optical Fiber

1)     Coaxial cable:

Coaxial lines confine virtually all of the electromagnetic wave to the area inside the cable. Coaxial lines can therefore be bent and twisted (subject to limits) without negative effects, and they can be strapped to conductive supports without inducing unwanted currents in them. In radio-frequency applications up to a few gigahertz, the wave propagates in the transverse electric and magnetic mode (TEM) only, which means that the electric and magnetic fields are both perpendicular to the direction of propagation (the electric field is radial, and the magnetic field is circumferential). However, at frequencies for which the wavelength (in the dielectric) is significantly shorter than the circumference of the cable, transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) waveguide modes can also propagate. When more than one mode can exist, bends and other irregularities in the cable geometry can cause power to be transferred from one mode to another.

The most common use for coaxial cables is for television and other signals with bandwidth of multiple megahertz. In the middle 20th century they carried long distance telephone connections.

2)     Microstrip:

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.

3)     Stripline:

A stripline circuit uses a flat strip of metal which is sandwiched between two parallel ground planes. The insulating material of the substrate forms a dielectric. The width of the strip, the thickness of the substrate and the relative permittivity of the substrate determine the characteristic impedance of the strip which is a transmission line.

4)     Balanced lines:

A balanced line is a transmission line consisting of two conductors of the same type, and equal impedance to ground and other circuits. There are many formats of balanced lines, amongst the most common are twisted pair, star quad and twin-lead.

        I.            Twisted pair:

Twisted pairs are commonly used for terrestrial telephone communications. In such cables, many pairs are grouped together in a single cable, from two to several thousand.

     II.            Quad, star quad:

Quad is four-conductor cable used sometimes for two circuits, as in 4-wire telephony, and other times for a single circuit, called star quad, a balanced circuit for audio signals. All four conductors are twisted together around the cable axis. In the quad format, each pair uses non-adjacent conductors. For star quad, two non-adjacent conductors are terminated together at both ends of the cable, and the other two conductors are also terminated together.

The combined benefits of twisting, differential signalling, and quadrupole pattern give outstanding noise immunity, especially advantageous for low signal level applications such as long microphone cables, even when installed very close to a power cable. The disadvantage is that star quad, in combining two conductors, typically has double the capacitance of similar two-conductor twisted and shielded audio cable. High capacitance causes increasing distortion and greater loss of high frequencies as distance increases.

   III.            Twin-lead:

Twin-lead consists of a pair of conductors held apart by a continuous insulator.

   IV.            Lecher lines:

Lecher lines are a form of parallel conductor that can be used at UHF for creating resonant circuits. They are a convenient practical format that fills the gap between lumped components (used at HF/VHF) and resonant cavities (used at UHF/SHF).

5)     Unbalanced Line (Single-wire line):

Unbalanced lines were formerly much used for telegraph transmission, but this form of communication has now fallen into disuse. Cables are similar to twisted pair in that many cores are bundled into the same cable but only one conductor is provided per circuit and there is no twisting. All the circuits on the same route use a common path for the return current (earth return). There is a power transmission version of single-wire earth return in use in many locations.

6)     Waveguide:

Waveguides are rectangular or circular metallic tubes inside which an electromagnetic wave is propagated and is confined by the tube. Waveguides are not capable of transmitting the transverse electromagnetic mode found in copper lines and must use some other mode. Consequently, they cannot be directly connected to cable and a mechanism for launching the waveguide mode must be provided at the interface.

7)     Optical fiber:

Optical fiber is a solid transparent fiber of glass or polymer that carries an optical signal. Optical fiber is a variety of waveguide. Optical fiber transmission lines form the backbone of modern terrestrial communications networks due to their low cost, low loss, and high signal bandwidth (high data rate).

Tech news

iPhone 5 Reaches Pakistan But Nano SIMs Are Yet to Surface!

We have been told that iPhone 5 has reached Pakistan with really limited stock in open market while retailers (and online shopping stores) are still waiting for iPhone 5 devices to be available by early next month or in second week of October at most.
iPhone 5, at this point of time, is being sold in open market at Rs. 90,000 to Rs. 97,000 as an exclusive offer for those early adopters who want to outshine in their circles. These iPhone 5 devices are believed to be shipped by individuals coming from USA to Pakistan.
Online retailers and phone stores are expecting to sell iPhone 5 devices around Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 90,000 when smartphone will be available at mobile markets in less than 2 weeks from now.
While on the other hands, Nano SIMs – compatible with iPhone 5 – are still not available with any telco. Mobilink had claimed the availability of Nano SIMs, however, we are getting reports that stock is yet to arrive at service centers.
A Facebook update by Mobilink reads:

For all the potential iPhone 5 holders, Mobilink is introducing the new nano-SIM SOON!
Mobilink customers will soon be able to simply walk into a customer care center and get their standard SIM replaced with the new nano-SIM.

Those who are inquiring for Nano SIMs from Mobilink are entertained with altered version of Micro SIMs, i.e. by cutting, grinding and curving the Micro SIM with nail filer.
We are yet to get hold of pricing details of Nano SIMs.
We are expecting other operators to launch Nano SIMs too, so let’s see who will be quickest to bring Nano SIMs in Pakistan in real.

 

Types of Copper Cables

Solid Wire:

Single strand copper wire is also called solid wire (solid core wire), consists of one piece of copper wire surrounded by an insulating material.

Cable:

All Copper Cables consists of two or more wires bounded and twisted together, running parallel to each other, forming a single assembly.

Types:

There are many Types of cable. such as

1. Shielding cable

2. Coaxial Cable

3. Strip Cable

4. Twisted pair Cables

           i) U/UTP

           ii) S/UTP

          iii) U/STP

          iv) S/STP

1. Shielding cables

Shielding cables are enclosed in wire mesh (Foil). The wires inside the shielding are mostly isolated from external electric fields.

2. Twisted pair cables

Twisted pair cable consists of two wire conductors that are twisted together as shown in fig. This phenomena is used to cancel out the electromagnetic interference (EMI) from external signal. which in turn reduces the loss of signal. There for twisted pair cables are being used in communication field from many decades, for conversions on telephone.

3. Coaxial cables

Coaxial cable is constructed by two or more wires or conductors that are centrally wrapped, and are separated by a dielectric (insulator). One solid conductor is in the center of cable, while other hollow conductor or wire is surrounding the Central conductor and the medium between them is (Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP), Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP) or Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene (PTFE)) used as insulator.
This concentric cylindrical form causes voltages induced by a magnetic field between the shield and the core conductor, nearly equal magnitudes which cancel out each other and reduces the signal losses.
Main advantage of Coaxial cable is that is has very little influence of interference on the carried signal from the outside. using interference to signals inside the cable. This property makes coaxial cable a good choice for carrying weak signals that cannot tolerate interference from the environment or for higher power signals that must not be allowed to radiate or couple into adjacent structures or circuits Coaxial cables, reduce low-frequency magnetic transmission and pickup.