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Analyze Transmission Line

This example shows you how to model the time-domain response of a parallel plate transmission line. To do so, first analyze the network in the frequency domain, then compute and plot the time-domain response of the network, and finally export a Verilog-A model of the transmission line for use in system-level simulations.

Build and Simulate Transmission Line

Create a txlineParallelPlate object to represent the transmission line, which is 0.1 meters long and 0.05 meters wide.

tline = txlineParallelPlate('LineLength',0.1,'Width',0.05);

Define the range of frequencies over which to analyze S-parameters of the transmission line.

f = 1.0e9:1e7:2.9e9;
S = sparameters(tline,f);
rfplot(S);

Compute Transmission Line Transfer Function and Time-Domain Response

To compute the transfer function of the transmission line and its time-domain response, you must:

  • Calculate the Transfer Function

  • Fit and Validate the Transfer Function Model

  • Compute and Plot the Time-Domain Response

Calculate Transfer Function

Compute the transfer function from the frequency response data using the s2tf function.

TrFunc = s2tf(S);

Fit and Validate Transfer Function Model

Fit a rational function to the computed data and store the result in an rfmodel object.

RationalFunc = rational(f,TrFunc)
RationalFunc = 
  rational with properties:

      NumPorts: 1
      NumPoles: 9
         Poles: [9x1 double]
      Residues: [1x1x9 double]
    DirectTerm: 0
         ErrDB: -74.1053

Compute the frequency response of the fitted model data.

[fresp] = freqresp(RationalFunc,f);

Plot the amplitude of the frequency response of the fitted model data and that of the computed data.

figure
plot(f/1e9,20*log10(abs(fresp)),'o-',f/1e9,20*log10(abs(TrFunc)))
xlabel('Frequency, GHz')
ylabel('Amplitude, dB')
legend('Fitted Model Data','Computed Data')

The amplitude of the model data is very close to the amplitude of the computed data. You can control the tradeoff between model accuracy and model complexity by specifying the optional tolerance argument, Tolerance, to the rational object, as described in Export Verilog-A Model.

Plot the phase angle of the frequency response of the fitted model data and that of the computed data:

figure
plot(f/1e9,unwrap(angle(fresp)),'o-',...
    f/1e9,unwrap(angle(TrFunc)))
xlabel('Frequency, GHz')
ylabel('Phase Angle, radians')
legend('Fitted Data','Computed Data')

The phase angle of the model data is very close to the phase angle of the computed data.

Compute and Plot Time-Domain Response

To compute and plot the time-domain response of the transmission line, first create a random input signal and compute the time response, tresp, of the fitted model data to the input signal:

SampleTime = 1e-12;
NumberOfSamples = 1e4;
OverSamplingFactor = 25;
InputTime = double((1:NumberOfSamples)')*SampleTime;
InputSignal = ...
    sign(randn(1, ceil(NumberOfSamples/OverSamplingFactor)));
InputSignal = repmat(InputSignal, [OverSamplingFactor, 1]);
InputSignal = InputSignal(:);

[tresp,t] = timeresp(RationalFunc,InputSignal,SampleTime);

Plot the time response of the fitted model data:

figure
plot(t,tresp)
xlabel('Time (seconds)')
ylabel('Response to Random Input Signal')

Export Verilog-A Model

Export a Verilog-A model of the transmission line. You can use this model in other simulation tools for detailed time-domain analysis and system simulations.

Use the writeva function to write a Verilog-A module for RationalFunc to the file tline.va. The module has one input, tline_in, and one output, tline_out. The method returns a status of True, if the operation is successful, and False if it is unsuccessful.

status = writeva(RationalFunc,'tline','tline_in','tline_out')
status = logical
   1

For more information on the writeva method and its arguments, see the writeva reference page.

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