Reflections and Standing

Waves
OD07 José Leonardo Simancas García
Escuela Naval de Suboficiales “ARC” Barranquilla
It has been shown that a sine wave applied to a matched line results in an identical sine wave, except for phase,
appearing at every point on the line as the incident wave travels down it. If the line is unmatched, a reflected wave
from the load adds to the incident wave from the source.
First, let us consider a transmission line terminated in an open circuit. Assume that the line is reasonably long, say
one wavelength. The situation is sketched in Figure.
A sketch showing the variation of peak (or RMS) voltage along the line is shown in Figure. It is important to realize
that this figure does not represent either instantaneous or dc voltages. There is no dc on this line at all. The figure
shows how the amplitude of a sinusoidal voltage varies along the line.

For comparison, Figure shows the standing waves of voltage on a line with a shorted end. Naturally, there is no
voltage at the shorted end, since there can never be a voltage at a short circuit.
What happens when the line is mismatched, but not so drastically as discussed above? There will be a reflected
wave, but it will not have as large an amplitude as the incident wave since some of the incident signal will be
dissipated in the load.
The incident and reflected voltages are related by the coefficient of reflection:

It can be shown that

In general, Γ is complex, but for a lossless line it is a real number if the load is resistive. It is positive for ZL > Z0 and
negative for ZL < Z0. F or ZL = Z0, the reflection coefficient is of course zero. A positive real coefficient means that the
incident and reflected voltages are in phase at the load. When a reflected signal is present but of lower amplitude
than the incident wave, there will be standing waves of voltage and current, but there will be no point on the line
where the voltage or current remains zero over the whole cycle. See Figure for an example.
It is possible to define the voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR or just SWR) as follows:

The SWR concerns magnitudes only and is thus a real number. It must be positive and greater than or equal to 1.
For a matched line the SWR is 1 (sometimes expressed as 1:1 to emphasize that it is a ratio), and the closer the line
is to being matched, the lower the SWR. The SWR has the advantage of being easier to measure than the reflection
coefficient, but the latter is more useful in many calculations. Since both are essentially measures of the amount of
reflection on a line, it is possible to find a relationship between them.
The maximum voltage on the line occurs where the
incident and reflected signals are in phase, and the
minimum voltage is found where they are out of phase.
Therefore, using absolute value signs to emphasize the
lack of a need for phase information, we can write
A little algebra will show that |Γ| can also be expressed in terms of SWR:

For the special, but important, case of a lossless line terminated in a resistive impedance, it is possible to find a
simple relationship between standing-wave ratio and the load and line impedances. First, suppose that ZL > Z0.

It is easy to show, in a similar way, that if Z0 > ZL, then

Use of the appropriate equation will always give an SWR

that is greater than or equal to one, and positive.
EXAMPLE
A 50-Ω line is terminated in a 25-Ω resistance. Find the SWR.

SOLUTION
In this case, Z0 > ZL so the solution is given by Equation
Reflections can cause the power delivered to the load to be less than it would be with a matched line for the same
source, because some of the power is reflected back to the source. Since power is proportional to the square of
voltage, the fraction of the power that is reflected is Γ 2 , that is,

Sometimes Γ 2 is referred to as the power reflection coefficient.

The amount of power absorbed by the load is the difference between the incident power and the reflected power,
that is,
EXAMPLE 6.7
A generator sends 50 mW down a 50-Ω line. The generator is matched to the line but the load is not. If the
coefficient of reflection is 0.5, how much power is reflected and how much is dissipated in the load?
Since SWR is easier to measure than the reflection coefficient, an expression for the power absorbed by the load in
terms of the SWR would be useful. It is easy to derive such an expression by using the relationship between Γ and
SWR given in Equation. The derivation is left as an exercise; the result is

EXAMPLE 6.8
A transmitter supplies 50 W to a load through a line with an SWR of 2. Find the power absorbed by the load.

Reflections on transmission lines can cause problems in receiving

applications as well. For instance, reflections on a television
antenna feedline can cause a double image or “ghost” to appear.
In data transmission, reflections can distort pulses, causing errors.
Transmission Line Losses
Most of the losses in a properly constructed and used transmission line are due to conductor resistance and, at
higher frequencies, dielectric conductance. Both of these losses increase with frequency. Some transmission lines
also radiate energy. This is particularly true of lines that are improperly connected; for instance, a coaxial line that
is used in a balanced circuit will radiate energy from its shield. When parallel lines are used at very high
frequencies, such that the distance between the wires is a substantial portion of the wavelength, they too can
radiate. Transmission line loss is usually specified in decibels for a given length, for instance, 100m or sometimes
100 feet. The decibel loss is proportional to distance, so it is easy to find the loss for any other length of line.
EXAMPLE 6.10
A transmission line is specified
to have a loss of 4 dB/100 m at
800 MHz. (a) Find the loss in
decibels of 130 m of this cable.
(b) Suppose that a transmitter
puts 100 W of power into this
cable. How much power
reaches the load?