EE2025 Engineering Electromagnetics: July-Nov 2022

Tutorial 1: Transmission lines

1. Using the concepts of electrostatics, find the capacitance per unit length, C of

1. parallel wire line, with each wire of radius a and separated by a distance 2d, where a << d.
2. coaxial cable of inner radius a and outer radius b.

Figure 1: (a) Two wire transmission line, a << d. (b) Coaxial transmission line.

2. Use the method of curvilinear squares.

1. Estimate the capacitance per unit length of a microstrip line of width w. Assume a substrate
with ε r = 4 and thickness h.
2. Compare this against against a microstrip calculator https://www.pasternack.com/t-calculator-
microstrip.aspx

Figure 2: Electric and magnetic field lines for a microstrip above an infinite ground plane.

3. The length of a microstrip trace line connecting two components on a chip is 50 cm. A sinu-
soidal signal of frequency 1 GHz is supplied to the trace at one end. Assuming the velocity of
propagation of the signal is 2 × 108 m/sec and there are no reflections,

1. Calculate the time taken by the signal to reach the other end of the trace.
2. What is the phase difference between the signal at the two ends of the trace ?

4. You are required to buy a cable from an electronics shop to connect your dish antenna to your set
top box and your set top box to your TV.

1. Write the name of the cable you would buy.

2. Upto what length do you think you can use this cable, in the lumped circuit model and
why?
 5. You are designing an entertainment system of an the new Dreamliner aircraft.You propose to use
the HDMI interface for aircraft entertainment, which has a digital content providing electronics
box at the cockpit. From this box, you need to connect your passengers’ in flight entertainment
system.The same system will be used by the pilot for announcements and instructions for emer-
gency.

1. How long can your cables be according to the spec sheets of the cable?
2. What would you do to connect passengers whom you think cannot be connected by a single
cable from the cockpit?
3. You are frustrated and try an experiment at home with a 25% longer HDMI cable than the
maximum length provided in the spec sheet, to connect your DVD to TV. Surprisingly, the
cable still works fine. You begin to wonder why the manufacturer specifies the maximum
length in the spec-sheet when 25% longer cables work fine. Why do you think manufactur-
ers did that ? Would you use the longer cable for the aircraft?

6. According to the maximum power transfer theorem, maximum time averaged power is trans-
ferred from a source with internal impedance Zg to a load, ZL when Zg = ZL∗ . A 50 MHz gen-
erator with an internal impedance ( Zg ) of 50 Ω is connected to an impedance 50−j25 Ω. How
would you ensure maximum power transfer in this case using a transmission line of characteris-
tic impedance 100 Ω, and what should be the minimum length of the transmission line element?

7. A transmission line operating at 500 MHz has Z0 = 80 Ω, α = 0.04 Np/m, β = 1.5 rad/m. Find
the line parameters R, L, G and C.

8. A 10 km. parallel wire transmission line operating at 100 kHz has Z0 = 557 Ω, α = 2.4 ×
10− 5 Np/m and β = 2.13 × 10− 3 rad/m. For a matched termination at x = 0 and VR = 10 V.
Evaluate V ( x ) at various x = λ/4, 2 × λ/4, ... upto the length of the line where x is measured
from load. Also plot the phasor of the voltage along the line.

9. The lossless transmission line, which has a characteristics impedance of 70 Ω and a phase con-
stant of 3 rad
m at 100 MHz. Find phase velocity,wavelength, propagation constant, inductance per
meter and the capacitance per meter of the transmission line.

10. A parallel-wire transmission line is constructed of #6 AWG copper wire (diameter = 0.162 in, σx =
58 MS/m) with a 12 inch separation in the air. Neglecting internal inductance, find the per meter
values of L, G, C, dc resistance, and the ac resistance at f = 1 MHz.

11. A transmission line has Zo = (5.843 + j5.373) Ω and γ = (0.117 + j0.108) m−1 . Is this the line
lossless? Find the primary constants (R, L, G, C) of the line at 1 MHz. For these primary constants,
over what frequency range can the line be treated as a low-loss line? (Assume α < 0.01β for low
loss line).

12. A 150 m long transmission line has 600 Ω, operates at 400kHz with a propagation constant of
0.0213∠83.54o m−1 and attenuation constant α = 2.4 × 10−3 Np/m, and supplies a load impedance
ZR = 424.3∠45o Ω. Find

1. length of the transmission line in wavelengths

2. attenuation
3. phase shift
4. phase velocity
5. Γ R
6. ΓS
7. ZS

For a received voltage VR = 50∠0◦ , find

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 1. VS
2. V −
3. position on the line where the voltage is maximum from the load
4. position on the line where the current is minimum from the load
5. the value of |V |max .

13. A telephone line has R = 30 Ω/km, L = 100 mH/km, G = 0, and C = 20 µF/km. At f = 1 kHz,
obtain:

1. The characteristic impedance of the line

2. The propagation constant
3. The phase velocity

14. A 300 Ω transmission line is 0.8 m long and terminated with a short circuit. The line operating in
air with a wavelength of 0.3 m and is lossless

1. If the input voltage amplitude is 10 V. What is the maximum value of voltage amplitude on
the line
2. What is the current amplitude in the short circuit

15. For a transmission line the per unit length parameters are 0.1 Ω/m, 0.2 µH/m, 10 pF/m and
0.02 ℧/m.

1. Find the complex propagation constant at at 1 MHz and 1 GHz

2. Find the distances at which the input power drops to 10% of the input power.

16. A transmission line with characteristic impedance Z0 = 50 - j5 Ω and propagation constant γ =

0.2 + j2.5 /m is connected to a load impedance of 100 + j50 Ω. Find the

1. reflection coefficient of the line at the load end,

2. reflection coefficient of the line 5m from the load.

17. On a 50 Ω BNC cable line,the reflection co-efficient is measured at the load end to be 0.7∠30◦ . If
the propagation constant of the line is 20∠89◦ /m, find the impedance seen on the transmission
line at a distance of 4 m from the load.

18. A 300 Ω transmission line is connected to a circuit with an input impedance of 75+j35 Ω.

1. Find the VSWR of the line.

2. Maximum impedance seen on the line
3. Minimum impedance seen on the line

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