This invention relates to transmission lines particularly lossy transmission lines, which are defined as cables or lines having high attenuation per unit length.

The characteristic impedance (Zo) of a trans¬ mission line is normally characterized in terms of the distributed series resistance (R) and inductance (L) ele¬ ments, and the distributed shunt conductance (G) and cap¬ acitance (C) elements, by the following expression:

The attenuation constant ( ) is given by the expression -

od __ GZo Neper/m

2Zo 2 For open wire lines G approaches zero, and for low loss lines R hence

Zo = L C

For conventional lossy lines where the series resistance is the significant loss element,

which can be rearranged into the form

Zo = L (a - jb) C

and ά =

2Zo

The capacitive reactance (-b) component of Zo

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will cause a mismatch between the lossy line and the normally purely resistive source.

The resulting mismatch, which is commonly spec¬ ified in terms of the voltage standing wave ratio (VS R) , will typically govern the acceptability of the match and hence the ratio of R has an upper limit determined by wL the highest acceptable VSWR.

Hence, for a given frequency range the value of resistance per unit length (R) has an upper limit which in turn determines the upper limit of attenuation ( ) .

In conventional lossy lines used as terminating units it is very desirable that they provide a minimum of 20 dB attenuation. Under this condition the termination at the far end of the line is of little or no importance in terms of matching at the input end of the line.

The minimum line length required to achieve 20 dB attenuation (oc) for a specified line impedance (Zo), "match" (VSWR) , and frequency range can therefore be deter¬ mined. The power capability of such a line is a funct¬ ion of the wire diameter and/or allowable temperature rise at the input end of the line.

By way of example, a typical conventional 600 -A_ lossy transmission line exhibiting a VSWR of < 1.5 and capable of dissipating 1 kW over the HF frequency range would need to be approximately 140 metres long to satisfy the VSWR requirement, but would need to be approximately 600 metres long to satisfy the power rating. (Assumes a maximum temperature rise of approximately 200°C - higher temperatures would require the use of impractically small wire diameters. )

Thus a disadvantage with conventional lossy lines is the long length required. This makes them unsuit¬ able as terminating units for applications such as port- able travelling wave antenna and may even make them unsuit¬ able for fixed travelling wave antenna where space is at a premium.

Typically, terminating units for portable (and some fixed) travelling wave antenna consist of a "lumped" resistive element which may be required at the top of the antenna mast. This is a distinct disadvantage, especially for high power transmitting antenna because of the significant wind loading on the terminating unit. This necessitates a more rugged mast and guy arrangement which consequently increases the weight and volume of the antenna and makes is less portable.

This invention describes an improved lossy transmission line which overcomes the disadvantages of: a. long conventional lossy transmission lines, and b. large physical size and weight of lumped resistive elements. It is an object of this invention to provide a short well matched lossy transmission line to replace long conventional lossy transmission lines or lumped resistive- element terminating units.

To this end this invention provides a lossy line which exhibits approximately constant loss per unit length (watts/m) characterized in that a conventional low loss transmission line is modified by securing ferrite beads to the wire.

Ferrite beads have previously been proposed for use as absorbers of electromagnetic energy as detailed in German patent 2,524,300.

Ferrite beads have also previously been proposed for use as a means of artificially loading antenna elements to reduce their physical length as detailed in U.S. patents 2,748,386 and 3,303,208. However the funda¬ mental and unique difference between the use of ferrite material as disclosed in these patent specifications, and the lossy transmission line of this invention is that the latter exploits the Curie effect phenomena to achieve a self regulating line resistance resulting in high power

loss per unit length which is essentially maintained until all the input power is absorbed. Taking advantage of the Curie effect is the key to the successful design and operation of a lossy transmission line of minimum length which maintains a good input match (VSWR) over a wide power frequency spectrum.

The use of the ferrite material as disclosed in the above mentioned German patent to simply absorb power and not operate at the Curie temperature is not very different from using a higher resistance wire for the transmission line, with the resulting constant (and low) attenuation and long line length.

The modified lossy line of this invention results in an order of magnitude reduction in the line length required to achieve the same power capability and quality of match as a conventional lossy line, and at the same time is capable of dissipating high powers without generating excessively high temperature.

The lossy line of this invention achieves this by exhibiting approximately "constant power loss" per unit length (watts/m) compared with "constant attenuation" per unit length (dB/m) for a conventional lossy line.

When cold, the ferrite beads offer a significant resistance to radio frequency current which causes rapid heating until stabilization is achieved at nominally Curie temperature. At this point the heat generated is equal to the heat dissipated and the individual "hot" ferrite bead impedance may be several orders of magnitude less than the "cold" impedance. Under these conditions the effective resistance per unit length (R) - which automatically adjusts itself along the line to maintain constant temperature, - is nominally equal to the design value allowed by the requir¬ ed quality of match. Thus the line operates at constant temperature along a sufficient portion of its length to absorb nominally all of the input power.

This results in a high and approximately constant power loss per unit length along the line until nominally all the power is absorbed, at which point the apparent open circuit seen looking further down the line is of no consequence.

In conventional transmission lines the atten¬ uation remains constant along the line and hence the power dissapated per unit length of line falls away very rapidly which results in a very long line. It would be very attractive to be able to main¬ tain constant power dissapation along the line as distinct from constant attenuation. In theory this can be achieved by increasing the resistance per unit length R along the line according to the following relationship:

Where ^' P = power dissapated/unit length

(constant) -- 1 ent at distance along R,n . = line resistance/unit length at distance JL along line To assist in the analysis of a transmission line exhibiting constant loss/unit length consider a section of line as depicted in Fig. 1. The line can be considered as being made up of N elements whose individual resistances are such that the power dissapated per element Pn is constant and equal to the input power Pin divided by N.

ie Pn = ^Pin = Pfn - Pf(n+1) -(2)

N

Pfn - Pf(n+1) = (In) ² Rfn -(3)

Pfn = (In) ² Zo -(4)

From which it can be shown that: Rfn = ^Zo -(5)

N-n This expression can now be integrated over any number of elements to determine the cumulative resistance as follows:

1 Rfn = Zo log _e (N-n) -(6)

~n !

It is useful to determine the value of Rfn for the following values of n:

n = ^ ₃ ^, N and they are: 4 2 4

Z Rfn = .2852 Zo -(7)

a? Rfn = Zo log

N ^δ e 2 = .693 Zo -(8)

1 t> Rfn = Zo log 4 = 1.386 Zo -(9)

3N 'e

1 > ^■ Rfn = Zo log N -(10)

N ^e

The above expressions indicate two important points as follows: a. The total line resistance required to achieve a desired attenuation is independent of input power and equals Zo log 2 for 3 dB attenuation. This is a useful parameter for determining the actual line length required to dissapate a given power when the allowable R is known, or deducible from an allowable input VSWR.

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b. The total line resistance required to diss- . apate all the power is directly proportional to the natural log of the number of elements which in turn equates to input power ie Zo log N.

This suggests that the number of elements per unit length should increase according to the natural log¬ arithm and so give a constant average resistance per unit length regardless of input power. It can be seen from the expression (5) above that the resistance of any particular element must decrease with increasing input power, ie as P increases, N increases, hence Rfn decreases.

Conversely as the input power drops to very low levels the resistance of elements at the input end of the line must rise to very high values if the goal of constant loss is to be achieved over the full power spectrum. However, the requirement to maintain an accept¬ able match at the input places a restraint on the upper value of _ which in turn limits the value of R. wL Summarizing, our ideal "model" which dissapates constant loss per unit length, comprises of N series elements whose individual resistance Rfn = _^ where N

N-n is directly proportional to input power. It suffers from the problem of requiring a minimum input power to maintain an acceptable match. The restraint on the upper value of R for our wL ideal model which is most significant at the lower power levels (and frequencies) can be accommodated by modifying the model so that the quantity of elements per unit length at the input end of the line is reduced. This will enable a satisfactory match to be maintained even at very low power levels at the cost of making the total line length a little longer.

It is this approach which has been adopted because it results in a lossy transmission line made up of N identical elements, only the spacing of which is varied. Summarizing, our "modified ideal" model consists of N identical elements spaced in a non linear manner ie thinly spaced at input end and then asymptotes towards that of the "ideal" model as we move down the line. This modified model maintains an acceptable input match over a wide input power.

The "modified ideal" model can be realized with certain limitations by the use of ferrite beads as the elements and exploiting the fact that they exhibit a Curie point. Certain ferrite beads (cold) offer significant series resistance to RF current and consequently the beads generate sufficient heat to raise their temperature to the Curie temp at which point their resistance may fall several orders of magnitude. This fully reversible process provides the self regulating mechanism needed to ensure constant loss per element under a very wide range of input power levels and frequencies.

In order to achieve an acceptable input VSWR over a wide power range the quantity of elements (ferrites) per unit length increases exponentially. This is somewhat emperical but is reinforced by the expression (10) above derived for total line resistance.

The power rating of the constant loss line is, as the name suggests, directly proportional to the line 1ength. It is useful to plot a graph of Rf vs log n which is then equivalent to R vs £ . By considering various values of N ie elements (or input power) and plot¬ ting values of

Rf for n = —, —, —, and N, a family of curves can

4 2 4 be drawn showing the variation of R along the line.

The allowable or design value of R can be deduced from knowing the input VSWR and the following expressions:

VSWR ₊ lκl -(11)

1 - K

where K Z - Zo (12)

Z + Zo

where x = R WIT

Which is a rearrangement of Z = R + jwL -(14) G + jwc for the case where G = 0 N -(15)

The value of R can be drawn on the same graph as ^Rf vs log n and becomes a straight line passing through the origin and intercept of < Rf and the total cold ferrite

N

1 1 resistance *r Rfc. This ensures that the value of R is

N 2 ^" never exceeded prior to the 3 dB loss point ( -—N,) regardless

2 of input power level, even when no beads are operating at Curie temperature, hence an acceptable input VSWR is maintained at all power levels. The line length required is simply scaled off the graph as the horizontal axis in addition to representing log n also represents ji , at least up to the point where bead crowding begins ie where n per unit length exceeds that which can be physically fitted per unit length of line.

As already mentioned the value of — is the factor wL limiting the resistance per unit length R and hence power

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A conventional lossy line providing the same capability would be approximately 650 m long. The line is loaded with 90 low loss inductive ferrite beads per metre to give a total inductance of approximately 12 H/m and a corresponding capacitive loading to give a characteristic impedance of 60θΛ . The distribution of ferrite beads along the line increases exponentially according to the expression N = e KL (K is constant and L = length) until the size of the beads precludes further addition. Thus initially one "R" bead is provided every metre for the first three metres and then the number per metre is increased until all available space for the beads in each metre of wire is taken up. Each ferrite bead whether it is an R or L bead is separated by a silicon rubber spacer. Longer spacers are used where the presence of R beads is less frequent.

The lossy elements comprise of highly resistive low reactance ferrite beads whose distribution is given by the expression N _R = e until crowding occurs at N _R = 90, at which point the resistive bead density remains constant at

90 beads per metre.

This distribution of resistive beads ensures that the VSWR does not exceed 1.5 which is equivalent to —R_ ^ .8 when G = 0. wL

The beads are threaded onto 18 SWG stainless steel wire with a silicon rubber spacer between each bead to provide mechanical protection of beads and allow bend¬ ing. Each threaded wire is placed in a silicon rubber tube and the two tubes are then joined together with sil¬ icon rubber adhesive. The tubes provide mechanical protec¬ tion for the ferrite beads and in conjunction with the ferrite aid in producing the correct shunt capacitance. As both the inductive and resistive beads con- tribute to the shunt capacitance it is essential that

"dummies" be used at the input end where the distribution

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dummy loads to provide a greater power rating when re¬ quired. Dummy loads based on the constant loss line would have inherent overload protection, as any excess power would simply be passed through the device (if terminated) or reflected back (if unterminated) .

From the above it can be seen that the present invention achieves its prime object of reducing the length of lossy lines and enables them to be of advantageous use as terminating units particularly for portable travel- ling wave antennas.

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