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Home 〉 Blog 〉 A Guide to Transmission Line Impedance

A Guide to Transmission Line

Impedance
 CADENCE PCB SOLUTIONS

The signals on this ASIC might act like transmission lines

Transmission line impedance matching is a critical part of any
layout. Whenever you are routing traces, there are several important
points to check in order to ensure signal integrity throughout your
board. Let’s take a look at which transmission line impedance you
need to consider for termination.

Everything You Need to Know About Transmission Line Impedance

Before getting into the topic of determining transmission line

impedance, you should read this article, which shows the di�erent
impedances used to describe real transmission lines in a PCB. Just
to summarize, we have some important values in a transmission
line, some of which have simple formulas that can be used
analytically:

• Characteristic impedance: This is the impedance of an

isolated transmission line. In other words, this is the
transmission line impedance when it is not coupled in any
way to any other nearby transmission lines, such as in a
di�erential pair.

• Di�erential impedance: This is the impedance of a pair of

transmission lines. It is only equal to double the
characteristic impedance in certain cases. In general, it is
double the odd-mode impedance, which is the value we
care about for di�erential signaling, as it is used in high-
speed PCB design.

The two most common impedances that are used in PCB design are
the characteristic impedance and the di�erential impedance. The
formulas for these values in terms of basic circuit theory are shown
below:

Single-ended
Odd-mode impedance Differential impedance
impedance
The equations shown above are simplified in that they do not
include losses along the transmission line, which must be included
in a real transmission line. The subscript “m” values are mutual
values, meaning they are the mutual capacitance and mutual
inductance. This is a parasitic e�ect and is unavoidable, even on the
most carefully designed boards. This coupling produces the even
and odd mode impedance values for a transmission line, depending
on how both lines are driven. It will also a�ect which impedance
value you use for termination (see the next section).

When designing an interconnect to have a specific transmission line

impedance, we worry more about the characteristic impedance, but
the odd-mode impedance is generally more important in high-
speed layout and routing. Most design guides will only talk about the
characteristic impedance. In reality, to properly route and terminate
transmission lines, we have to understand the even and odd mode
impedance, and the di�erential impedance when dealing with high-
speed interfaces.

Termination and Impedance Matching

Here is something the PCB community won’t tell you about

transmission lines and their critical length—all interconnects that do
not run at DC will behave as transmission lines. The issue is whether
the e�ects of a transmission line impedance mismatch are
noticeable at di�erent frequencies or di�erent signal rise times. This
brings up the question of when it is worthwhile to match the
transmission line impedance to a load. However, which transmission
line impedance should be used?

As a result, designers have defined various values for a critical

length below which you do not need impedance matching. As a
general rule, if you are working with razor thin noise margins, then
you should always match impedances between a driver, load, and
source, even in electrically short transmission lines. With high-speed
signals and interfaces, you should also always match transmission
line impedance to the load. The correct way to do this is to look at
the input impedance of the transmission line, not just the
characteristic impedance.

This so-called critical length is actually quite important beyond just

determining when to impedance match a transmission line to the
source and load. Here is how this is quantified. If you calculate the
voltage V and current I along a transmission line with length ℓ, you’ll
find that the impedance seen by a signal (analog or digital) that
reflects o� a mismatched load depends on the length of the
transmission line and its capacitive and inductive characteristics.
This is shown in the equation below.

The final equation defines the lossy transmission line input

impedance seen by a signal that is input to the line
If the propagation constant is known, then the input impedance can
be determined for any frequency. However, as we see above, the
input impedance depends on the length of the line, not just the
impedances.

Long or Short Lines

The author, being something of a mathematical purist, is a

proponent of taking this approach in all situations. First, simply
calculate the value of γ and the characteristic impedance. Next, plug
in the length and γ into the equation shown above. The impedance
value you calculate is the transmission line impedance the signal
sees as it reflects o� the mismatched load and travels on the line.

In the limit of a very long transmission line (such as when the line
length is many multiples of the wavelength), then the tanh function
eventually converges to 1. In this case, the input impedance is just
the transmission line’s characteristic impedance:

In contrast, when the transmission line is very small compared to

the wavelength (i.e., at low enough frequency), the impedance seen
by a traveling signal will reduce to the load impedance because
tanh(0) = 0. Note that this applies to both lossy and lossless
transmission lines:

This explains why we have a critical length: when the transmission

line is short enough that tanh(γℓ) ~ 0 (or tan(γℓ) ~ 0 for a lossless
line), then the input signal only sees the load impedance. The source
and load impedance should be matched to ensure maximum power
transfer into the load and prevent signal reflection.

Special Cases for a Lossless Transmission Line

For transmission lines with su�ciently low losses (i.e., Re(γ) = 0), the
tanh(x) function above must be replaced with the function jtan(x),
where j is the imaginary constant. You will have certain cases where
Im(γ)ℓ = mπ/2, where m is an integer. In this case, you will be
evaluating tan(mπ/2) in the above equation. The result reduces to:
These are the impedances that a signal sees as it reflects back along
the transmission line. If the source, load, and transmission line are all
mismatched, then there are repeated reflections along the length of
the line, which leads to a stair-step response seen in digital signals
or standing waves with analog signals.

Matching the transmission line’s characteristic impedance and the

load prevents reflection at the load end, and the input impedance
will just be the characteristic impedance. In this case, there are no
reflections at the load, but you do not have maximum power
transfer down the line if the source is unmatched. If you go a step
further and match the source to the characteristic impedance, you
now ensure maximum power transfer across the line.

Analog vs. Digital Transmission Lines

We should make a distinction here regarding the value of γ. In

distinguishing the e�ects of transmission for di�erent types of
signals, think of transmission lines (either isolated or coupled) as
filters with some transfer function. With an analog signal oscillating
at a single frequency, γ is just the complex wavenumber multiplied
by the e�ective dielectric constant (pi divided by half the
wavelength inside the trace) plus the attenuation per unit length
along the line. However, you might remember from discussions of
dispersion, that the dielectric constant and the characteristic
impedance depend on frequency.

This a�ects signals in di�erent ways. For analog and digital

transmission lines, we need to analyze transmission lines in the
following ways:

• Analog signals: Generally, we only care about one specific

frequency. For modulated signals, we typically only design to
 the carrier frequency.

• Digital signals: With digital signals, we have to design so that

the characteristic impedance (or di�erential impedance) and
termination are determined at a very high limiting frequency.
The limited frequency of interest is usually the Nyquist
frequency for the receiver or some limit determined from the
rise time.

For frequency-modulated analog signals, the characteristic

impedance of a transmission line has a constant value throughout
the signal’s frequency spectrum as long as the relevant frequency
range is high enough. At lower frequencies and with amplitude
modulated signals, this may not be the case, and the other relevant
impedance values will depend on frequency and driving mode, i.e.,
they will have some associated spectrum.

Transmission line impedance with modulated signals only concerns

the carrier frequency
With digital signals, one must remember that the source and load
impedances are not consistent at all frequencies. The relevant
bandwidth to consider for transmission line impedance matching is
the range extending from the pulse repetition rate up to some very
high frequency. For high-speed receivers, this is usually the Nyquist
frequency. If you’re worried about oversampling the digital signal or
measuring it, then you need to use at least 0.5/(rise time). As long
as the component’s bandwidth is flat within this range of
frequencies, then you can consider a single value for your PCB
routing design rules and transmission line impedance matching.

A Note on Ringing

If there is some ringing on a transmission line due to signal

reflections, it will be a function of the trace length relative to the
length the signal travels during its rise time. For slowly rising signals,
where the signal reaches the end of the transmission line before the
signal rises to full strength, the signal will still ring even with perfect
transmission line impedance matching. However, the strength of
ringing may be so small as to be unnoticeable when compared to
the noise margin as long as the transmission line’s impedance
spectrum is flat up to the signal’s bandwidth limit. This is discussed
beautifully by Dr. Howard Johnson. This is one reason why some
designers encourage routing traces with the shortest possible
length.

In essence, the ringing amplitude depends on the voltage di�erence

between the two ends of the line. If the signal rises faster, the
voltage di�erence across the line will be larger, leading to a larger
ringing amplitude for a given line length. In order to compensate for
ringing, you need to shift the resonance frequency of the
transmission line to much higher than the knee frequency while
ensuring impedance matching to eliminate reflection or you need to
critically damp the response with a series resistor.

When in Doubt, Check the Datasheet

Many components are designed to specific signaling standards and

have specified input and output impedance values. These
components are designed to operate with a specific transmission
line impedance, where the impedance is normally specified in terms
of the characteristic--even or common (for parallel data transfer, for
older standards) or di�erential impedance (for high-speed
di�erential standards). These signaling standards will also specify
the line lengths you should use for di�erent applications and how
components that use di�erent standards (or no standard at all)
should be terminated in order to ensure compatibility.

Check the datasheet to determine the impedance you should use

for termination
If you are not working with a specific signaling standard, you will
have some work ahead of you to ensure compatibility when
connecting components. DRCs are generally not designed to
account for potential intermixing between components with
di�erent signaling standards, and you’ll need to check component
datasheets to see exactly how components should be matched to
the transmission line impedance.

Transmission line impedance matching is a critical part of ensuring

signal integrity, and you can ensure your interconnects are designed
properly when you use the right PCB design and analysis software
package. Allegro X PCB Designer and Cadence’s full suite of analysis
tools make it easy to determine the various transmission line
impedance values and perform important signal integrity
simulations in your circuits.

If you’re looking to learn more about how Cadence has the solution
for you, talk to us and our team of experts.

Contact Us

About the Author

Cadence PCB solutions is a complete front to back design tool to enable fast
and e�cient product creation. Cadence enables users accurately shorten
design cycles to hand o� to manufacturing through modern, IPC-2581 industry
standard.

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