Network Parameter

Microwave Network
• A microwave network is formed when several

microwave devices and components such as
sources, attenuators, resonators, filters, amplifiers, etc.,
are coupled by transmission lines or waveguides for the desired transmission of a
microwave signal.
• The point of interconnection of two or more devices is called a junction.

Port is a reference plane
• For a low-frequency network, a port is a pair of terminals whereas

for a microwave network,
a port is a reference plane transverse to the length of the microwave
transmission line or waveguide.
• At low frequencies, the physical length of the network is much smaller than the
wavelength of the signal transmitted. Therefore, the measurable input and output
variables are voltage and current which can be related in terms of the impedance Z-
parameters, or admittance Y-parameters, or hybrid h-parameters, or ABCD parameters.
• For a two-port network as shown schematically in Fig. 6.1, these
relationships are given by
• In Eq. (6.4a), +I2 for current at Port 2 is outward and –I2 taken for current at Port 2 is
inward.
• Here, Zij, Yij, and A, B, C and D are suitable constants that characterize the junction.
• A, B, C and D parameters are convenient to represent each junction when a number of
circuits are connected together in cascade. Here the resultant matrix, which describes the
complete cascade connection, can be obtained by multiplying the matrices describing
each junction as follows:
• These parameters can be measured under short- or open-circuit condition for use in the
analysis of the circuit.
• At microwave frequencies, the physical length of the component or line is comparable to
or much larger than the wavelength.
• Furthermore, the voltage and current cannot be uniquely defined at a given point in a
single conductor waveguide.
Furthermore, measurement of Z, Y, h and ABCD parameters is difficult
at microwave frequencies due to the following reasons:
• 1. Absence of unique definition of voltage and current as noted above and non-availability
of terminal voltage and current-measuring equipment, even in the cases of TEM lines
(coaxial, strip and microstrip lines) where such quantities can be uniquely defined.
• 2. Short-circuit, and especially open-circuit, are not easily achieved for a wide range of
frequencies.
• 3. Presence of active devices makes the circuit unstable for short or open circuit.
• Therefore, microwave circuits are analyzed using scattering or S-parameters which
linearly relate the amplitudes of scattered (reflected and transmitted) waves with those of
incident waves.
• However, many of the circuit-analysis techniques and circuit properties that are valid at
low frequencies are also valid for microwave circuits. Thus, for circuit analysis, S-
parameters can be related to the Z or Y or ABCD parameters.
• The properties of the parameters are described in the following sections.
Properties of Z and Y Matrices for Reciprocal Networks
• In a reciprocal network, the impedance and the admittance matrices are symmetrical and the junction
media are characterized by scalar electrical parameters m and e. For a multiport (N port) network, let the
incident wave amplitude Vn+ be so chosen that the total voltage Vn = Vn+ + Vn– at all ports n = 1, 2, ..., N,
except the ith port where the fields are Ei, Hi. Similarly, let Vn = 0 at all ports except jth one where the fields
are Ej, Hj. Then from the Lorentz reciprocity theorem,
• where S is the closed surface area of the conducting walls enclosing the junction and N ports in the absence
of any source. Since the integral over the perfectly conducting walls vanishes, the only non-zero integrals are
those taken over the reference planes of the corresponding ports, so that
• Since Vn except Vi and Vj are zero, Eti = n x Ei and Etj = n x Ej are zero on all reference planes at the
corresponding ports except ti and tj, respectively. Therefore, Eq. (6.6) reduces to
• where Pij represents the power at the reference plane i due to an input voltage at the plane j.
• From the admittance matrix representation [I ] = [Y ] [V ] and power relation P = VI, Eq. (6.8) reduces to
• This proves that the impedance and admittance matrices are symmetrical for a reciprocal junction.
SCATTERING OR S-MATRIX REPRESENTATION OF MULTIPORT
NETWORK
• As discussed in Section 6.1, the incident and reflected wave amplitudes of microwaves at
any port are used to characterize a microwave circuit.
• The amplitudes are normalized in such a way that the square of any of these variables
gives the average power in that wave in the following manner:
• where an and bn represent the normalized incident wave peak amplitude and normalized
reflected wave peak amplitude at the nth port.
SCATTERING OR S-MATRIX REPRESENTATION OF MULTIPORT
NETWORK
• The concept of scattering(s) parameters comes from the fact that RF and microwave
circuit may contain some discontinuity or discontinuities in the signal propagation path.
• At an discontinuity the wave scattered in different directions as evanescent waves
containing infinite number of higher order modes.
• These modes attenuated very fast after a short distance from the point of discontinuity
within about a quarter wavelength. Then only the excited mode comes out from the
different ports.
• All these emerging waves are considered as reflected waves at the corresponding ports.
• The waves entering the ports are considered the input or incident wave.
• In a two-port network, we can express the normalized waves in terms of normalized
voltages:
• where a’s represent normalized incident wave amplitude and b’s represent normalized
reflected wave amplitude at the corresponding ports.
• Here, the total voltage wave is the sum of incident and emergent voltage waves V+ and V–
respectively:
• The numeric suffices represent the port number.

• The total or net power flow into any port is given by r.m.s. value
• Therefore, in this normalization process, the characteristic impedance is normalized to

unity.
• For a two port network (Fig. 6.1), the relation between incident and reflected waves are
expressed in terms of scattering parameters Sij’s:
• The normalization process leads to a symmetrical scattering matrix for reciprocal
structures. The physical significance of S-parameters can be described as follows:
• In general, since the incident and reflected waves have both amplitude and phase, the S-
parameters are complex numbers.
• For multiport (N) networks or components, the S-parameter equations are expressed by
• In microwave devices or circuits, it is important to express several
losses in terms of S-parameters when the ports are match terminated.
• In a two-port network, if power fed at Port 1 is Pi, power reflected at
the same port is Pr and the output power at Port 2 is Po then
following losses are defined in terms of S-parameters:
Properties of S-Parameters for a Junction of Ports
having Common Characteristic Impedance
• In general, the scattering parameters are complex quantities having the following properties for different
characteristics of the microwave network or junction where characteristic impedance is same at all ports.
• 1. S-matrix is always a square matrix of order N x N for an N-port network and its elements are complex
quantities (real and imaginary parts).
• 2. Phase-shift property of S-Matrix
• 3. Diagonal elements are zero for perfect matched network.
• 4. S-matrix is symmetric for a reciprocal network
• 5. S-matrix has unitary property for a lossless network

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Microwave Network

• A microwave network is formed when several

• The point of interconnection of two or more devices is called a junction.

• For a low-frequency network, a port is a pair of terminals whereas

• The numeric suffices represent the port number.

• Therefore, in this normalization process, the characteristic impedance is normalized to

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