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In telecommunications and transmission line theory, the reflection coefficient is the ratio of the complex amplitude of the reflected wave to that of the incident wave. The voltage and current at any point along a transmission line can always be resolved into forward and reflected traveling waves given a specified reference impedance Z 0.
There are several approaches to understanding reflections, but the relationship of reflections to the conservation laws is particularly enlightening. A simple example is a step voltage, () (where is the height of the step and () is the unit step function with time ), applied to one end of a lossless line, and consider what happens when the line is terminated in various ways.
The Smith Chart allows simple conversion between the parameter, equivalent to the voltage reflection coefficient and the associated (normalised) impedance (or admittance) 'seen' at that port. The following information must be defined when specifying a set of S-parameters:
The input impedance of an infinite line is equal to the characteristic impedance since the transmitted wave is never reflected back from the end. Equivalently: The characteristic impedance of a line is that impedance which, when terminating an arbitrary length of line at its output, produces an input impedance of equal value. This is so because ...
To avoid reflections, the impedance of two media must match. On the other hand, even if the real part of the refractive index is the same, but one has a large absorption coefficient, the impedance mismatch will make the interface highly reflective. The wave impedance is given by = ()
In electrical engineering, impedance is the opposition to alternating current presented by the combined effect of resistance and reactance in a circuit. [1]Quantitatively, the impedance of a two-terminal circuit element is the ratio of the complex representation of the sinusoidal voltage between its terminals, to the complex representation of the current flowing through it. [2]
Generally, the reflections will have the same shape as the incident signal, but their sign and magnitude depend on the change in impedance level. If there is a step increase in the impedance, then the reflection will have the same sign as the incident signal; if there is a step decrease in impedance, the reflection will have the opposite sign.
If only reflection magnitudes are desired, however, and exact fault locations are not required, VSWR bridges perform a similar but lesser function for RF cables. The combination of the effects of signal attenuation and impedance discontinuities on a communications link is called insertion loss .