Circuit Response
every model has an edge, and the figure carries it
Concept

Available power — where it appears

The power a source would deliver into a load conjugate-matched to it, which is the most it can give up. Gain and noise figure are defined as ratios of available powers so that they describe the two-port rather than whatever happens to be connected to it.

Named by 13 essays across 4 fields — each of them below, with the objects they name alongside it.

The same three stages, in two orders. computed by solving, not by drawing by Friis's cascade. With the low-noise amplifier first the chain's noise figure is 3.31 dB; with the mixer first it is 12.01 dB. The gain is identical either way — 48.0 dB — so the 8.70 dB is bought with nothing but an ordering. Everything after the first stage contributes 26.0% of the total. The 2.0 dB of cable in front has gain below one, so it multiplies every later stage's contribution rather than dividing it.

The loss in front, counted twice

A decibel of cable before an amplifier costs a decibel of signal, which everybody expects, and a decibel of noise figure, which is a separate decibel arriving from a separate place. Measured across the slider it is exact: 1.31 dB of chain noise figure becomes 2.31 with one decibel of cable and 9.31 with eight, every time, while the 8.70 dB that stage ordering is worth does not move at all. A lossless reactive network in the same position costs nothing, because only the real part of an impedance is warm.

noise · Johnson noise Twenty metres buys 20 dB of apparent match and costs 10 dB of noise figure. computed by solving, not by drawing. The same cable and the same 200 Ω load as the reading, with the amplifier that is actually behind the instrument. The rising trace is the return loss the instrument reads, which is the load's own 4.44 dB plus twice the one-way loss. The lower pair is the chain's noise figure: a 2 dB amplifier with the cable in front of it, counted as a matched attenuator whose noise factor is its loss, and counted honestly from the available gain of a lossy line driven by a source that reflects 0.60. The first says the exchange rate is exactly two decibels of match per decibel of noise figure, at every length here. The second is higher everywhere — by (1−Γ²u²)/(1−Γ²), which is 0.028 dB at five centimetres and 1.938 dB, the load's own mismatch loss, once the cable is long enough to have absorbed the reflection. At twenty metres the instrument reads 24.4 dB and the chain costs 13.92 dB against the amplifier's own 2.

The cable that hides two things

A length of cable improves a return-loss reading by twice its loss and raises a noise figure by once it, so the rule of thumb is two decibels of apparent match per decibel of floor. Both halves are owned here and neither essay had the other. Put together they say what an acceptance limit costs: making a 4.0:1 load read 1.50:1 spends 6.53 decibels of noise figure, against a mismatch that was itself costing 1.938 — and the exchange rate is not two but 2(1−Γ²)/(1+Γ²), which is 0.94 where a pad is actually short.

lines · Line loss The load that may be complex, and what a resistor alone gives up. computed by solving, not by drawing, with the best load searched over BOTH of its parts on the solved network rather than substituted. Against a source of 50 Ω + j100 Ω the search returns 50.00 − j100.0 Ω — the conjugate — which delivers the available 500.00 mW at exactly 50.00% efficiency, and does so at every source reactance. A load that may only be a resistance takes 2/(1 + √(1 + x²)) of that, matching the solved answer to 4.4e-16 at ten reactances — and at x = 2 that fraction is exactly the golden ratio less one, 0.618034. The resistor-only load is the MORE efficient of the two at every non-zero reactance, rising towards one while the conjugate match sits at a half for ever, so the familiar "maximum power at fifty per cent" belongs to the conjugate and not to the load.

The load that may be complex

Freed of the constraint that it be a resistance, the best load is the source's conjugate — found here by a two-dimensional search on the solved network rather than assumed — and it takes the available power at exactly fifty per cent efficiency whatever the source's reactance. A load that may only be a resistance takes 2/(1 + √(1+x²)) of that, and at a source reactance of twice its resistance that is exactly the golden ratio less one, 0.618034. The resistor-only load is also the MORE efficient of the two, rising towards one while the conjugate sits at a half for ever.

power · Power transfer The net noise power between two resistors at two temperatures. computed by solving, not by drawing. A 1 kΩ resistor at 400 K joined to a second one at 290 K, whose resistance runs over six decades. Each delivers 4kTR₁R₂/(R₁+R₂)² per hertz to the other; the net is 1.5187 zW/Hz at the match, which is exactly kΔT and contains no resistance — a gigohm pair at the same two temperatures exchanges the same. Away from the match the exchange falls, to 0.0596 zW/Hz at a ratio of a hundred, so the maximum-power argument applies to noise as it does to a signal. At one temperature the net is zero at every ratio, to 7.5e-37 W/Hz, which is the statement a wrong noise model would break.

Which way the noise goes

Two warm resistors joined together each drive the other, and the net flow is 4kΔT·R₁R₂/(R₁+R₂)² per hertz. At the match that is kΔT exactly — 1.5187 zeptowatts per hertz between 400 K and 290 K — and a kilohm pair and a gigohm pair at the same two temperatures exchange the same, which is why noise is quoted as a temperature. At one temperature the net is zero at every ratio to a part in 10³⁷, and that zero is the second law rather than a tolerance.

noise · Johnson noise The load alternates with parity between 1 and 1.9841, at every order. computed by solving, not by drawing. The last quotient of the continued fraction that turns a reflection polynomial into element values, which is the load resistance the design demands, drawn against order. A Butterworth returns exactly one at every order. A Chebyshev alternates: one at every odd order and 1.984056 at every even one, the same number each time, and it is the closed form (√(1+ε²)+ε)² to a part in 10¹⁵. The mechanism is in the last two rows of the panel. A lossless ladder filter is two resistances at direct current, so it must deliver the maximum available power there, which requires that zero be one of the frequencies the design reflects nothing at — and an even-order Chebyshev's reflection zeros are the roots of an even Chebyshev polynomial, none of which is zero. The synthesis stalls at order 9 for a Butterworth, which is why that series stops at eight.

The termination an even order cannot have

Every even-order Chebyshev ladder terminates in 1.984056 times its source resistance at half a decibel of ripple, the same number at orders two, four, six and eight, and it is (√(1+ε²)+ε)² to a part in 10¹⁵. Building one between equal terminations instead — which is what a table of g-values and a matched pair gives — turns 0.5000 dB of ripple into 1.8123 at order four, deletes one of the passband maxima outright, and moves the worst tolerance corner from the 2.000 power of the component tolerance to the 1.109 power: a factor of 95 at one per cent parts.

filters · Filter termination A lossy cancelling capacitor beats a resistor alone only above Q = 3.236 if it cancels everything, and only above 1.618 at all. computed by solving, not by drawing. A source of 50 Ω + j100 Ω, its reactance cancelled by a capacitor whose quality factor is Q, so that the capacitor carries a series resistance of its reactance over Q. Cancelling fully, with the load resistor matched to the source and capacitor resistances together, the load takes 1/(1 + x/Q) of the available power, at exactly half efficiency; a resistor alone takes 0.6180, 2/(1 + √(1 + x²)). They are equal at Q = 3.2361, twice the golden ratio. Cancelling only part of the reactance does better than either: it helps at all above Q = (√(1 + x²) + 1)/x = 1.6180, and at Q = 3 takes 0.6650 against 0.5971 cancelled fully.

The reactance that is not free

A conjugate match cancels the source's reactance with an opposite one and takes all the available power, where a resistor alone takes 2/(1 + √(1 + x²)), 0.618 of it when the reactance is twice the resistance. The cancelling capacitor is not free. With quality factor Q it carries a resistance of its reactance over Q, and cancelling fully then delivers 1/(1 + x/Q). That beats the resistor alone only above Q = 2(√(1 + x²) + 1)/x, 3.236 here, twice the golden ratio. But full cancellation is not the best use of a lossy capacitor. Cancelling part of the reactance beats both, and helps at all above Q = (√(1 + x²) + 1)/x, the golden ratio itself. Below that, the right amount to cancel is none.

power · Power transfer Matched at 1 kHz, the conjugate load wins only from 730 Hz to 1.84 kHz; the resistor-only load is a low-pass, not a broadband answer. computed by solving, not by drawing. A source of 50 Ω and an inductance of 100 Ω at 1 kHz, with the conjugate load for 1 kHz — 50 Ω and a capacitor of −j100 Ω — and the resistor-only load for 1 kHz, 111.8 Ω, both held fixed while the frequency moves. The conjugate match takes all the available power at 1 kHz and stays within a decibel of it from 777 Hz to 1.29 kHz, a band of 50.9% of the centre, 1.0176/x. The resistor-only load takes 0.6180 at 1 kHz, 0.8509 at 100 Hz, and less at every frequency above: a low-pass whose peak is at direct current. The conjugate load is the better of the two only between 730 Hz and 1.84 kHz.

The load for a source that will not hold still

A conjugate match is exact at one frequency. Held fixed while the frequency moves, it stays within a decibel of the available power over 1.0176/x of the centre: 51 per cent of it when the source's reactance is twice its resistance, 12.7 per cent at eight times. It beats the resistor-only load only between 0.73 and 1.84 of the centre frequency. The resistor-only load is not a broadband answer, as it is usually called. It is a low-pass whose best frequency is direct current. And for a source whose reactance could be anywhere within ±Δx of a centre, the fixed load that guarantees the most power cancels the centre exactly and takes a resistance of √(1 + Δx²) times the source's. That guarantees 2/(1 + √(1 + Δx²)): the resistor-only rule, applied to the uncertainty instead of to the reactance.

power · Power transfer A 6 dB pad at 290 K turns a cold source into 217.2 K and a 290 K one into 290 K. computed by solving, not by drawing, every resistor's Johnson noise carried to the pad's open output. A matched 50 Ω T-pad of 6 dB (arms 16.61 Ω, shunt 66.93 Ω) at 290 K, fed from a 50 Ω source at the temperature on the horizontal axis. The output's noise temperature (dots) is Tₛ/L + T·(1 − 1/L), with T the pad's own temperature, to nine figures (line): a slope of 1/L = 0.2512 and an intercept of 217.2 K — the pad's own noise, (1 − 1/L)·290 K, seen at its output. The dotted diagonal is no pad at all. The two cross at 290 K, where the source is at the pad's temperature and the output is too.

The noise a pad adds is its temperature

A matched resistive pad of loss L at physical temperature T presents a noise temperature of Tₛ/L + T(1 − 1/L) at its output, for a source at Tₛ,, and summing its four resistors' Johnson noise to the open output confirms it to nine figures. Referred to its input its own noise is (L − 1)·T — 288.6 K at 3 dB, 28,710 K at 20 dB — so its noise figure in decibels is its loss in decibels at 290 K, which Friis states from the definition and the resistors reach by themselves. At its output a pad can never add more than its own temperature: cooled to 4 K, a 20 dB pad adds 3.96 K there, and still 396 K referred to its input. Most of a heavy pad's noise is made in its last resistor — 82.6% at 20 dB. And set between a 400 K source and a 290 K load, a pad stops the net flow of noise power at a temperature that depends on its loss, or, below 1.40 dB, at none.

noise · Johnson noise A 0.5 dB Chebyshev ladder of order five passes what it does not reflect: the two powers sum to one to 2e-15. computed by solving, not by drawing: a fifth-order Chebyshev ladder of 0.5 dB ripple between 1 kΩ terminations, solved at 481 frequencies. The transmitted power is the transducer gain, read from the load voltage; the reflected power is |ρ|², read from the impedance the filter presents to its source. Their sum is one to 2.0e-15 everywhere. The reflection reaches 0.1087 at each ripple trough, against ε²/(1 + ε²) = 0.1087 with ε² = 10 to the power ripple/10, less one, a return loss of 9.64 dB, and falls to zero at direct current and at 0.555 and 0.898 of the corner, where the transmission is at its maxima. The ripple band ends at 0.944 of the corner. The slider is the ripple.

What a filter does not pass, it sends back

A passive LC ladder built from lossless reactances has nowhere to put power except the load and the source. So the power it transmits and the power it reflects sum to what the source makes available — to 2 × 10⁻¹⁵ across a fifth-order Chebyshev, read from two different ports — and every passband specification is a return-loss specification in disguise: half a decibel of ripple is 9.64 dB of return loss at every order, a hundredth of a decibel is 26.4. The same identity predicts the filter's response from any source resistance out of one input impedance, and bounds the damage a wrong source can do by composing two reflections.

filters · Filter termination With inductors of Q 100 the filter absorbs up to 10.5% of the available power, and the loss rate times its delay predicts the curve's shape — 11.2% at the same frequency. computed by solving, not by drawing. The fifth-order 0.5 dB Chebyshev ladder filter of the reflection essay, each inductor given a series resistance ωL/Q at the corner, so that each loses energy at the rate σ = 2πfc/Q. The power absorbed in the inductors, as a fraction of the available power, against frequency; beside it the lossless ladder filter's delay, D = |t|²τ₂₁ + |ρ|²τ₁₁, times σ — the stored energy over the available power, times the loss rate. At Q 100 the absorption peaks at 10.53% at 0.957 of the corner, where σ·D is 11.24%; between 0.3 and 0.95 of the corner the two agree to 7%, the rest being the split between magnetic and electric energy and the terms of second order in the loss. The slider is the inductors' Q.

The heat a delay predicts

A lossy LC ladder filter absorbs power where it stores energy, and a lossless ladder filter stores energy in exact proportion to its delay — the transmitted delay weighted by what it transmits plus the reflected delay weighted by what it reflects. So the droop of a lossy filter is its loss rate times that delay: with equal losses in inductors and capacitors, to 0.09% at Q 10,000. With inductors of Q 100 in a fifth-order Chebyshev, 10.5% of the available power is absorbed at the band edge against 11.2% predicted. Inductor loss alone misses only by the split between magnetic and electric energy — near one in the passband, 4.6 to one at 1.6 times the corner — and the dual ladder filter mirrors the split. The law is first order, and it overstates the band-edge peak by 17.5/Q.

filters · Filter termination With the receiving end at 0.9 of the sending voltage the limit peaks at 62.6% cancellation, where the impedance angle is 56.3° — and the peak is still Vₛ²/4R = 264.5 kW. computed by solving, not by drawing, at 50 Hz, searched over the angle between the sources on the solve (dots) and from (Vᵣ·cos β/R)·(Vₛ − Vᵣ·cos β) (line): the 0.05 + j0.2 Ω tie with the sending source at 230 V and the receiving one at 207 V, against the fraction of the reactance cancelled; dashed, equal ends. The limit is a parabola in cos β with its top at cos β = Vₛ/(2Vᵣ) = 0.5556, an impedance angle of 56.25°, reached at k = 62.58%; its height there is Vₛ²/4R = 264.50 kW, the same as for equal ends. Uncompensated, this tie carries 180.53 kW at most. The slider is the receiving voltage as a fraction of the sending.

The peak a sagging receiver keeps

The sixty degrees at which series compensation stops raising a tie's transfer limit is a statement about two ends at equal voltage. With the receiving end lower, the limit is a parabola in the cosine of the impedance angle whose top is at cos β = Vₛ/2Vᵣ: 56.3° and 62.6% cancellation for a receiver at 0.9 of the sender, 33.6° and 83.4% at 0.6, full cancellation at one half. But the height of that top is Vₛ²/4R whatever the receiving voltage — 264.5 kW for the 0.05 + j0.2 Ω tie from a receiver at 1.1 of the sender down to one at 0.5 — and at it the receiving end takes exactly half of what is sent, to four decimal places, for every receiving voltage tried. The best compensated tie is the sending source driving a matched load, and the receiving source's voltage only decides how much capacitor that takes.

power · Series compensation A 20 dB line from 300 K down to 4 K, fed from a 300 K source: how much of the noise at its cold end each piece of it makes. computed by solving, not by drawing: the line as forty matched pads, each at the temperature of its own place on a linear gradient, each pad's law held to the resistor-by-resistor sum. The noise temperature at the cold end is 67.7 K — the continuous line's closed form gives 67.63 K — of which 3 K is the source's, attenuated, and the rest the line's own. Each piece emits (1 − 1/L)T at its own temperature and is attenuated by every piece after it, so the warm pieces at the start, which emit most, are attenuated most: the warm half of the line supplies 17.99 K, the cold half 46.71 K.

The end a lossy line looks like

A line running from room temperature into a 4 K stage is a chain of pads, each at its own temperature, and its noise at the cold end is each piece's emission attenuated by everything after it. Cut into forty pads along a linear gradient, a 20 dB line fed from a 300 K source delivers 67.7 K to the cold end, where the continuous closed form says 67.63; its cold half supplies 46.7 K of that and its warm half 18.0. Read from the warm end, the same line's own noise is 184 K at 10 dB against 89.7 at the cold: a lossy line looks like the end it is read from. And twenty decibels placed as one attenuator at the 4 K stage deliver 6.96 K, where at room temperature they deliver 300.

noise · Johnson noise A 4:1 load on a cable of 3 dB matched loss costs the cable 1.53 dB more: the standing wave makes the line lossier, by up to the mismatch loss. computed by solving, not by drawing. The extra loss — power into the line over power reaching the load, beyond the matched line's — against the matched loss, for loads giving a standing-wave ratio of 1, 1.5, 2 and 4: 10·log((a² − |Γ|²)/(a(1 − |Γ|²))) − 10·log a (lines), with a 200 Ω load on a 50 Ω line solved exactly as a line whose loss is all series resistance (dots). At a ratio of 4 the extra is 0.109 dB on a 0.1 dB line, 0.82 on a 1 dB line, 1.53 on 3 dB and 1.94 on 20 dB — rising towards the mismatch loss 10·log(1/(1 − |Γ|²)) = 1.94 dB, which it reaches when the reflected wave is burnt before it can return.

The heat a standing wave leaves

A cable improves a mismatch's apparent return loss by twice its own loss because the reflection is burnt on the way back, and the burning is not free: it is extra loss in the cable. For one unit delivered to a load reflecting |Γ| through a line of matched loss a, the line must be fed (a² − |Γ|²)/(a(1 − |Γ|²)). A 4:1 load on a 3 dB cable costs 1.53 dB more than a matched one; on a 20 dB cable, 1.94 dB, which is exactly the mismatch loss, because by then every reflected watt is heat. Short lines multiply their dissipation by (1 + |Γ|²)/(1 − |Γ|²), long ones by 1/(1 − |Γ|²). Solved exactly on a line whose loss is in its conductor, the heat stands where the current does: the hottest point runs at the standing-wave ratio times a matched line's, 4.04 against 4.00, so a power rating limited by temperature falls by the ratio, not by the average.

lines · Line loss

Named alongside it

The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.

Impedance matchingDesign tradeoffMaximum power transferInsertion lossJohnson noiseNoise figureNoise temperatureReflection coefficientTransmission lineChebyshevDoubly terminated ladder filterMeasurement condition

All concepts