In a termination, power is absorbed by a length of lossy material at the end of a shorted piece of

transmission line (Figure 4-30(a)). This type of termination is called a matched load, as power is
absorbed and reflections are small irrespective of the characteristic impedance of the transmission
line. This is generally preferred to a lumped resistor at high frequencies. If size is critical, as the
characteristic impedance of transmission lines varies with frequency, a simpler and smaller
termination can be realized by placing a resistor to ground (Figure 4-30(b)).

Terminations are used to completely absorb a forward-traveling wave and the defining characteristic
is that the reflection coefficient of a termination is zero. If a transmission line has a resistive
characteristic impedance R0 = Z0,

th
en terminating the line in a resistance R0 will fully absorb the forwardtraveling wave and there will
be no reflection. The line is said to be matched. At RF and microwave frequencies some refinements
to this simple circuit connection are required. On a transmission line the energy is contained in the
EM fields. For the coaxial line shown in Figure 7-3(a), a simple resistive connection between the
inner and outer conductors would not terminate the fields and there would be some reflection.
Instead, coaxial line terminations generally are comprised of a disk of resistive material. The total
resistance of the disk from the inner to the outer conductor will be the characteristic resistance of
the line, however, the resistive material is distributed and so creates a good termination of the fields
guided by the coaxial line. Terminations are a problem with microstrip as the characteristic
impedance varies with frequency, is in general complex, and the vias that would be required if a
lumped resistor was used has appreciable inductance at frequencies above a few gigahertz. A high-
quality termination is realized using a section of loss line as shown in Figure 7-3(b). Here lossy
material is deposited on top of an open-circuited microstrip line. This increases the loss of the line
appreciably without significantly affecting the characteristic impedance of the line. If the length of
the lossy line is sufficiently long the forward-traveling wave will be totally absorbed and there will be
no reflection. Tapering the line, as shown in Figure 7-3(b), reduces the discontinuity between the
microstrip line and the lossy line by ensuring that some of the power in the forward-traveling wave is
dissipated before the maximum impact of the loss material occurs. Here a matched termination is
achieved without the use of a via, and the termination automatically matches the varying
characteristic impedance of the line. The same principle can be used with other transmission
structures.