Cables

1.Shields are made of nonmagnetic materials and have a

thickness much less than a skin depth at the frequency of
interest.
2. The receptor is not coupled so tightly to the source that it
loads down the source.
3. Induced currents in the receptor circuit are small enough not
to distort the original field. (This does not apply to a shield
around the receptor circuit.)
4. Cables are short compared with a wavelength.

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 For,

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 Center conductor extends beyond shield

Noise depends primarily on unshielded part of conductor 2

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 C12 reduced by the presence of shield

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 Reduce B by physical separation or by twisting the source wires

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 For Magnetic coupling noise voltage is produced in series with receptor
conductor. For Electric field coupling a noise current is produced between the
receptor conductor and ground
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Non-magnetic shield around a conductor and ungrounded or grounded at one end
has no effect on the magnetically induced voltage

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 If w is very small the term in
bracket equals 1
The noise is same as in
unshielded cable

(if ‘w’ is large)

To minimize pick-up minimize Rs

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 Shielding a receptor against magnetic field-Decrease receptor loop area,
ground both ends of the shield. At frequencies below the shield cut-off most
of the current returns thru ground plane, hence there is no field generated
to cancel the center conductor field.

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• ZT is transfer impedance in ohms per unit length
• IS is the shield current
• V is the induced voltage between internal conductor and the
shield
• ‘l’ is the length of the cable
• At low frequencies the transfer impedance is equal to dc
resistance of the shield
• Above 1 Mhz due to skin effects transfer impedance reduces.
Skin effect causes noise currents to remain on the outside
surface of the shield and the signal current on the inside and
therefore eliminates common impedance coupling between
the two currents

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 Coax versus Unshielded Twisted Pair(UTP)

• Twisted pairs are extended to

100s of MHz by reducing
capacitance and tight and
uniform twisting (balanced
structure)
• Ethernet cables
– Cat 5-UTP upto125MHz
– Cat 6-upto250MHz
• Coax grounded at one end gives
protection against electric filed
pick-up but as the shield is also
part of the signal path, noise will
appear in series with signal
• UTP is good against magnetic
field coupling

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 Braided versus Spiral
• Braided shield slightly reduced electric
field shielding but greatly reduced
magnetic field shielding because it distort
the uniformity of longitudinal shield
current
• Advantage of braid is flexibility, durability,
strength
• Less effective as a shield than solid
conductor
• Spiral shield show a longitudinal and
circular current component which has a
detrimental effect of adding to
inductance and hence not recommended
above 100KHz. Because these are
basically coils of wires and hence induce
inductive effects.

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 Shield terminations

• the magnetic shielding

effectiveness near the ends of the
cable depends strongly on the
method by which the shield is
terminated
• A pig tail connection causes shield
current to be concentrated on one
side of the shield
• 360o electrical contact to shield is
preferred as in BNC

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 L s=M

When a coaxial cable is used at low frequencies and the shield is grounded at
both ends, only a limited amount of magnetic field protection is possible because
of the noise current induced into the shield Because the induced current flows
through the shield, which is also one of the signal conductors, a noise voltage is
produced in the shield, that is equal to the shield current times the shield
resistance. This is shown in Fig. 2-25. The current IS is the noise current caused
by a ground differential or by external magnetic field coupling. If the voltages are
summed around the input loop, then the following expression is obtained:
It is better to use a twisted shielded pair to carry the signal and use the shield to
carry only noise current

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In circuits A through F (Fig. 2-27), both ends of the circuit are grounded. They provide much less
magnetic field attenuation than do circuits G through K (Fig. 2-28), where only one end is grounded.

In circuit B, the shield is grounded at one end; this has no effect on the magnetic shielding.
Grounding the shield at both ends as in configuration C provides some magnetic field protection
because the frequency is above the shield cutoff frequency

Use of a twisted pair as in circuit D should provide much greater magnetic field noise reduction, but
its effect is defeated by the ground loop formed by circuit grounds at both ends. This effect can
clearly be observed by comparing the attenuation of circuit H to that of circuit D.

Adding a shield with one end grounded to the twisted pair as in E has no effect. Grounding the shield
at both ends as in F provides additional protection, because the low-impedance shield shunts some
of the magnetically induced ground-loop current away from the signal conductors.

Circuit G shows a significant improvement in magnetic field shielding, which is caused by the small
loop area formed by the coaxial cable and the fact that no ground loop is available to defeat the
shielding. The coax provides a small loop area because the shield can be represented by an
equivalent conductor located on its centre axis. This effectively locates the shield at or near the axis
of the centre conductor.
It was expected that the twisted pair of circuit H would provide considerably more shielding than the
55 dB shown. The reduced shielding is because some electric field coupling is now beginning to show
up because the twisted pair is unshielded and the termination is unbalanced
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in circuit I, where attenuation increases to 70 dB by placing a shield around the twisted pair. The fact that
attenuation in circuit G is better than in I indicates that in this case the particular coaxial cable presents a
smaller loop area to the magnetic field than does the twisted pair.

Grounding both ends of the shield as in circuit J decreases the shielding slightly. This reduction is because
of the high shield current in the ground loop formed by the shield inducing unequal voltages in the two
center conductors circuit K provides more shielding than I because it combines the features of the coax G
with those of the twisted pair I

It is almost always better to connect the shield and the signal conductors together at just one point. That
point should be such that noise current from the shield does not have to flow down the signal conductor
to get to ground.

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 Low frequency cable shield grounding

The main reason to shield cables at low frequency is to protect them against
electric field coupling primarily from 50/60-Hz power conductors.

The shield protects against the electric field coupling and the twisted pair protects
against the magnetic field coupling

Single point grounding of shield is recommended

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 High frequency cable shield grounding
• Above 100KHz ground shield at both ends or
where the cable length exceeds ..
• Stray capacitances tends to complete the
ground loop if the shield is not terminated at
both ends
• Power line noise coupled to signal can be
filtered especially for digital circuits

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 Low frequency grounding
• In circuits A to D either
the source or the
Amplifier end is
grounded. Shield is
grounded at the same
end, and only at that
end.
• In E & F both ends are
grounded. Shield is also
grounded at both the
ends.

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 High frequency grounding
• At high frequencies stray capacitance tend to
complete ground loop
• Above 100KHz or where cable length exceeds
1/20th of wavelength of noise ground the
shield at both ends. Any noise coupled due to
ground potential difference can be filtered out
especially when dealing with digital circuits.

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 Summary
• At 50/60 Hz Shielded cables gives protection against only
electric fields
• Twisted pair gives protection against magnetic field at 50/60
Hz
• High impedance devices are susceptible to electric field
coupling
• Shield should be terminated to the enclosure and tie circuit
ground to the enclosure at the same point
• As cable length approaches one twentieth wavelength
grounding the shield at both ends may be required. This is
done with digital circuits

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 Hybrid ground

• When signal contains both high and low

frequency components

Replace stray cap with 47 nF

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 • When signal contains
both high and low
frequency components
• Replace stray cap with
47 nF

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