Created in COMSOL Multiphysics 6.

Finding the Impedance of a Parallel-Wire

Transmission Line

This model is licensed under the COMSOL Software License Agreement 6.1.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. See www.comsol.com/trademarks.
Introduction
A parallel-wire transmission line is composed of two conducting wires in a dielectric such
as air. The fields around such a transmission line are not directly confined by the
conductors but extend to infinity, although they drop off rapidly away from the wires. This
example demonstrates how to compute the fields and impedance of such an unshielded
transmission line and compares the results to the analytic solution.

Conducting wires

Open domain

Figure 1: A parallel-wire transmission line. The electric field strength is plotted in color while
arrows show the magnetic field.

Model Definition
Because a parallel-wire transmission line operates in TEM mode⎯with the electric and
magnetic fields normal to the direction of propagation along the cable⎯modeling a 2D
cross section suffices to compute the fields and the impedance. For this example, assume
perfect conductors and a lossless air region. The wires, of radius is 1 mm, are separated by
a center-to-center distance of 8 mm.

Because the structure is open, the fields extend infinitely far away from the wires. However,
they drop off quickly in magnitude. This raises the question about what boundary
condition to use on the air domain’s outer boundary. The surrounding dielectric medium

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can be thought of as a perfect insulator, as opposed to the wires, which are modeled as
perfect conductors. Thus, the model uses a perfect magnetic conductor (PMC) boundary
condition, because this condition is, in a sense, the opposite of the perfect electric
conductor (PEC) boundary condition. However, it must be placed some distance away
from the wires or else it would artificially confine the fields. In this example, the air
domain’s radius is chosen to be five times the distance from its center to the center of each
wire. Increasing this radius would give a more accurate solution at the cost of a more
memory-intensive computation.

C
1 2
.

Figure 2: The impedance of a parallel-wire transmission line can be found from the voltage,
V, and current, I, which are computed via line integrals as shown.

The characteristic impedance, Z0 = V/I, of a transmission line relates the voltage to the
current. Although the model does not involve computing the potential field, the voltage
of the TEM waveguide can be evaluated as a line integral of the electric field between the
conductors:


V = V 2 – V 1 = – E ⋅ dr (1)
1

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Similarly, the current is obtained as a line integral of the magnetic field along the boundary
of either conductor, or any closed contour, C, bisecting the space between the conductors:

I =
°C H ⋅ dr
The voltage and current in the direction out of the plane are positive for integration paths
oriented as in Figure 2.

The value of Z0 obtained in this way, should be compared with the analytic result

1 μ0 rd
- acosh  ----- = 247 Ω
Z 0, analytic = --- ---------
π ε0 ε ra
r

Here ra is the wire radius and rd is the center-to-center distance between the wires.

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Results and Discussion
Figure 3 is a combined plot of the electric field magnitude and the magnetic field
visualized as an arrow plot.

Figure 3: Electric field magnitude (surface) and magnetic field (arrows) around the two
parallel wires.

The impedance computed with the default mesh is Z0 = 255.8 Ω. As the radius of the
dielectric domain is increased, the numerical solution will approach the analytic value of
247.4 Ω.

Notes About the COMSOL Implementation

Solve this example using a Mode Analysis study and the default frequency, f = 1 GHz.

Application Library path: RF_Module/Verification_Examples/

parallel_wires_impedance

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Modeling Instructions
From the File menu, choose New.

NEW
In the New window, click Model Wizard.

MODEL WIZARD
1 In the Model Wizard window, click 2D.
2 In the Select Physics tree, select Radio Frequency>Electromagnetic Waves,
Frequency Domain (emw).
3 Click Add.
4 Click Study.
5 In the Select Study tree, select Preset Studies for Selected Physics Interfaces>
Mode Analysis.
6 Click Done.

GLOBAL DEFINITIONS

Parameters 1
1 In the Model Builder window, under Global Definitions click Parameters 1.
2 In the Settings window for Parameters, locate the Parameters section.
3 In the table, enter the following settings:

Name Expression Value Description

r_a 1[mm] 0.001 m Wire radius
r_d 4[mm] 0.004 m Center-to-center
distance between
wires
r_air 5*r_d 0.02 m Air-domain radius
Z0_analytic (Z0_const/pi)* 247.44 Ω Characteristic
log(r_d/r_a+ impedance, analytic
sqrt((r_d/r_a)^2-
1))

Here, Z0_const is a predefined COMSOL constant for the characteristic impedance of

vacuum, Z0 = sqrt(μ0/ε0). From the Value column you can read off the value Z0,
analytic = 247 Ω. Note also that the logarithm in the definition for Z0_analytic is
an equivalent way of writing acosh(r_d/r_a).

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GEOMETRY 1
First, create a circle for the air domain.

Circle 1 (c1)
1 In the Geometry toolbar, click Circle.
2 In the Settings window for Circle, locate the Size and Shape section.
3 In the Radius text field, type r_air.
4 Click Build Selected.

Add a circle for one wire.

Circle 2 (c2)
1 In the Geometry toolbar, click Circle.
2 In the Settings window for Circle, locate the Size and Shape section.
3 In the Radius text field, type r_a.
4 Locate the Position section. In the x text field, type r_d.
5 Click Build Selected.

Then, generate the other wire by mirroring the above one.

Mirror 1 (mir1)
1 In the Geometry toolbar, click Transforms and choose Mirror.
2 Select the object c2 only.
3 In the Settings window for Mirror, locate the Input section.
4 Select the Keep input objects check box.
5 Click Build Selected.

Difference 1 (dif1)
1 In the Geometry toolbar, click Booleans and Partitions and choose Difference.
2 Select the object c1 only.
3 In the Settings window for Difference, locate the Difference section.
4 Find the Objects to subtract subsection. Click to select the Activate Selection toggle
button.
5 Select the objects c2 and mir1 only.
6 Click Build Selected.

Create a line for computing the voltage as a line integral of the electric field.

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Line Segment 1 (ls1)
1 In the Geometry toolbar, click More Primitives and choose Line Segment.
2 In the Settings window for Line Segment, locate the Starting Point section.
3 From the Specify list, choose Coordinates.
4 Locate the Endpoint section. From the Specify list, choose Coordinates.
5 Locate the Starting Point section. In the x text field, type -r_d+r_a.
6 Locate the Endpoint section. In the x text field, type r_d-r_a.

Add a line, a part of the closed contour for computing the current as a line integral of the
magnetic field.

Line Segment 2 (ls2)

1 In the Geometry toolbar, click More Primitives and choose Line Segment.
2 In the Settings window for Line Segment, locate the Starting Point section.
3 From the Specify list, choose Coordinates.
4 Locate the Endpoint section. From the Specify list, choose Coordinates.
5 Locate the Starting Point section. In the y text field, type -r_air.
6 Locate the Endpoint section. In the y text field, type r_air.
7 Click Build Selected.

The model layout describes two parallel wires in the air.

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DEFINITIONS
Add a variable for the characteristic impedance computed as the voltage between the wires
divided by the current through the wires. Define two nonlocal integration couplings for
computing the voltage and the current.

Integration 1 (intop1)
1 In the Definitions toolbar, click Nonlocal Couplings and choose Integration.
2 In the Settings window for Integration, type int_E in the Operator name text field.
3 Locate the Source Selection section. From the Geometric entity level list, choose
Boundary.
4 Select Boundaries 1 and 4 only.

Integration 2 (intop2)
1 In the Definitions toolbar, click Nonlocal Couplings and choose Integration.
2 In the Settings window for Integration, type int_H in the Operator name text field.
3 Locate the Source Selection section. From the Geometric entity level list, choose
Boundary.

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4 Select Boundaries 2, 3, 11, and 12 only.

Because of the PMC boundary condition, there is no tangential H-field on the

outermost boundaries. It is therefore possible to omit Boundaries 11 and 12 when
computing the current even though the model includes those boundaries.

STUDY 1

Step 1: Mode Analysis

1 In the Model Builder window, under Study 1 click Step 1: Mode Analysis.
2 In the Settings window for Mode Analysis, locate the Study Settings section.
3 Select the Desired number of modes check box. In the associated text field, type 1.

DEFINITIONS

Variables 1
1 In the Definitions toolbar, click Local Variables.
2 In the Settings window for Variables, locate the Variables section.

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3 In the table, enter the following settings:

Name Expression Unit Description

V int_E(-emw.Ex*t1x- V Voltage
emw.Ey*t1y)
I -int_H(emw.Hx*t1x+ A Current
emw.Hy*t1y)
Z_model V/I Ω Characteristic impedance

Here, t1x and t1y are the tangential vector components along the integration
boundaries (1 refers to the boundary dimension). The emw. prefix gives the correct
physics-interface scope for the electric and magnetic field vector components.

ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES, FREQUENCY DOMAIN (EMW)

Now set up the physics. The default boundary condition is perfect electric conductor.
Override the outermost boundaries with a perfect magnetic conductor condition to create
a virtually infinite modeling space.

Perfect Magnetic Conductor 1

1 In the Model Builder window, under Component 1 (comp1) right-click
Electromagnetic Waves, Frequency Domain (emw) and choose Perfect Magnetic Conductor.
2 Select Boundaries 5, 6, 11, and 12 only.

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MATERIALS
Next, assign a material to the modeling domain.

ADD MATERIAL
1 In the Home toolbar, click Add Material to open the Add Material window.
2 Go to the Add Material window.
3 In the tree, select Built-in>Air.
4 Click Add to Component in the window toolbar.
5 In the Home toolbar, click Add Material to close the Add Material window.

MESH 1
Use the default mesh.

1 In the Model Builder window, under Component 1 (comp1) click Mesh 1.

2 In the Settings window for Mesh, locate the Physics-Controlled Mesh section.
3 In the table, clear the Use check box for Electromagnetic Waves,
Frequency Domain (emw).
4 Click Build All.

STUDY 1
In the Home toolbar, click Compute.

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RESULTS

Electric Field (emw)

The default plot shows the distribution of the norm of the electric field. Add an arrow plot
of the magnetic field.

Arrow Surface 1
1 Right-click Electric Field (emw) and choose Arrow Surface.
2 In the Settings window for Arrow Surface, locate the Arrow Positioning section.
3 Find the X grid points subsection. In the Points text field, type 30.
4 Find the Y grid points subsection. In the Points text field, type 30.
5 In the Electric Field (emw) toolbar, click Plot.
6 Locate the Coloring and Style section. From the Color list, choose White.
7 Select the Scale factor check box. In the associated text field, type 1.2e-4.
You can use the slider to adjust the arrow-length scale factor.
Compare the resulting plot with that shown in Figure 3.

Add an arrow plot along the boundaries to see the orientation of tangent vector field.

Arrow Line 1
1 Right-click Electric Field (emw) and choose Arrow Line.
2 In the Settings window for Arrow Line, click Replace Expression in the upper-right corner
of the Expression section. From the menu, choose Component 1 (comp1)>Geometry>tx,
ty - Tangent.
3 In the Electric Field (emw) toolbar, click Plot.
4 Locate the Arrow Positioning section. In the Number of arrows text field, type 100.

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5 In the Electric Field (emw) toolbar, click Plot.

A comparison with Equation 1 reveals that the line integral for the voltage computes
the potential difference V2 - V1. When computing the line integral for the current, the
clockwise orientation of the integration contour would mean that a positive current is
directed in the negative z direction, that is, into the modeling plane. The minus sign
added in the definition of I reverses this direction.
Finish by computing the characteristic impedance.

Global Evaluation 1
1 In the Results toolbar, click Global Evaluation.
2 In the Settings window for Global Evaluation, locate the Expressions section.
3 In the table, enter the following settings:

Expression Unit Description

Z_model Ω Characteristic impedance

4 Click Evaluate.

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TABLE
1 Go to the Table window.
The value shown in the Table window should be close to 255.8Ω. You can get closer to
the analytic value 247.4Ω by increasing the air-domain radius. For example, changing
the definition of r_air to 10*r_d under Global Definitions>Parameters and re-
solving the model gives the value 248.9Ω.

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16 | FINDING THE IMPEDANCE OF A PARALLEL-WIRE TRANSMISSION LINE