Rf Impedance Matching Using Ltspice
Rf Impedance Matching Using Ltspice
Abstract Therefore, if we put a capacitor in series with an inductor and they both have
This article explains the basics of radio frequency (RF) impedance matching, equal but opposite reactances at one particular frequency, they form a short
how to calculate the matching components, and how to check the results circuit with zero phase shift. Likewise, if these components are placed in paral-
in LTspice®. lel, they form an open circuit with zero phase shift: the net impedance of two
components in parallel is found by dividing the product of the impedances by
their sum and if they have equal but opposite reactances, the reactances create a
Introduction zero-value denominator and thus an open circuit.
Electronic theory states that maximum power is transferred from a source to a
load when the source resistance matches the load resistance. With most RF cir- If a resistor is placed in parallel or series with a reactive component, then the
cuits, however, the source and load impedances have a reactive element, in which loaded Q describes the ratio of the reactance to the resistance. The loaded Q of a
case the source impedance must be equal to the complex conjugate of the load parallel circuit is defined as:
impedance for maximum power transfer. In other words, while the real parts of the Rp
Q= (3)
Xp
source and load impedance must match, the imaginary part of the load impedance
must be opposite in sign to the imaginary part of the source impedance. The loaded Q of a series circuit is defined as:
Xs
Q= (4)
Much of the complexity of an RF power amplifier circuit is due to the imped- Rs
ance matching components surrounding the main active component, be that a Where Rp and Rs are the parallel and series resistors, and Xp and Xs are the
transistor or integrated solution. Once it is understood how these RF imped- parallel and series reactances.
ance matching circuits have been calculated, the rest of the circuit is more
straightforward. Calculating these matching components is a simple process, We can use the loaded Q of a network to transform a parallel network to a series
but sometimes it is good to have a tool to cross-check these calculations and network and thus make the matching a lot easier. Once the series equivalent of
ensure that, indeed, the maximum power is being transferred from the source a network is derived, it is then just a matter of choosing a source impedance with
to the load. equal real, but opposite imaginary components to complete the impedance match.
This article digs deeper into the impedance matching theory outlined in Chris The circuit shown in Figure 1 has an impedance given by
Bowick’s book, RF Circuit Design, which many engineers regard as the radio Product Rp × (–jXcp)
Z= = (5)
Sum Rp – jXcp
frequency bible. Readers may want to refer to this book to get a fuller picture of
other RF impedance matching networks. LTspice simulations are also included where –jXcp is the reactance of the parallel capacitor.
throughout the article to cross-check the calculations. Cp Rp
Z –>
–j100 Ω 1000 kΩ
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A quicker way of obtaining the series components is to find the loaded Q (Qp) of
50 Ω L
the parallel network (using Equation 3), then use the equation C 1 kΩ
Rp
Rs = (6) Figure 3. Matching a 50 Ω source to a 1 kΩ load at 100 MHz.
Qp2 + 1
to find the new series resistance. We then design a series network with the same Figure 3 shows a 50 Ω source that needs to be matched to a 1 kΩ load at 100 MHz.
Q and put the new series resistor, Rs, into Equation 4 to find the new series The shunt capacitor needs to transform the parallel 1 kΩ to a series 50 Ω resis-
reactance, Xs. The derivation of Equation 6 is shown in the appendix. tor, which means this RC combination needs to have a loaded Q of 4.36, from
Therefore, the circuit components in Figure 1 give a loaded Q of 10, which is found Equation 6. This will give us an equivalent series resistance of 50 Ω plus a series
by dividing the parallel resistance by the parallel reactance. Using Equation 6, capacitance of some value. We then choose a series inductor to create an equal
we can translate the parallel 1 kΩ resistor to a series resistor, Rs, of 9.9 Ω. We but opposite reactance to the series capacitor. These two reactances cancel and
can then use Equation 4 to work out that the series capacitor needs to have a we are left with a 50 Ω resistor feeding into a 50 Ω load.
reactance of –j99 Ω. Thus, at a given frequency, the circuit in Figure 1 presents an We can use Equation 3 to calculate the reactance of the parallel capacitance. So
identical impedance to the circuit in Figure 2. 1 kΩ
Xp = = 229 Ω (8)
Cs 4.36
–j99 Ω Rs The parallel capacitor should be 6.94 pF to present a reactance of –j229 Ω at
9.9 Ω
Z –> 100 MHz. We now have a parallel network. To change this to a series network, we
Figure 2. The series representation of the circuit in Figure 1. equate the Q’s of the parallel and series networks. Using Equation 4, we can see
that this parallel circuit translates to a series equivalent network with Rs = 50 Ω and
Since the load has a real part of 9.9 Ω and a negative imaginary part (–j99 Ω), we (9)
Xs = 4.36 × 50 Ω
need a source impedance with a real part of 9.9 Ω and a positive imaginary part
(+j99 Ω) to ensure maximum power transfer will be achieved. In effect, by choos- So Xs = 218 Ω.
ing a source reactance that is equal but opposite to the load reactance, these Therefore, the parallel combination of the 6.94 pF capacitor and the 1 kΩ load looks
two reactances cancel each other out (creating a short circuit) and we are left like a series 50 Ω resistor and a series capacitor with a reactance of –j218 Ω. Choosing
with the source resistance driving an identical load resistance. a series inductor to give a +j218 Ω ensures the reactive parts of the matching
Now, the series circuit in Figure 2 is only an equivalent of the circuit in Figure 1. network cancel and the 50 Ω source now feeds an effective load resistance of 50 Ω.
We don’t have to change the configuration of Figure 1. If we drive this parallel cir- Figure 4 shows the final network.
cuit with a source that has a series impedance of (9.9 + j99) Ω, maximum power IN
R1 L1
will be transferred.
V1 50 Ω 346.87 nH C1 R2
It is important to note that the parallel reactance (in this case, Cp) creates a AC1
6.937 pF 1 kΩ
lower value series equivalent of the 1 kΩ resistor by a factor determined by the Q .ac dec 1000 1 Meg 1 G
of the circuit. This reactance can be either a series capacitor or a series induc- Figure 4. The matching components to match a 50 Ω source to a 1 kΩ load at 100 MHz.
tor. The opposite is also true. In a series RC circuit (as shown in Figure 2), the
series reactance (whether capacitive or inductive) creates a higher value parallel The circuit can be simulated in LTspice. The circuit is constructed as normal
equivalent of the series resistor, Rs. Indeed, we can rearrange Equation 6 to read and for convenience the junction of R1 and L1 is labeled “IN.” The impedance of
the load, as seen by the source, can be plotted by probing the IN node and the
Rp = (Q2 + 1)Rs (7)
current flowing into L1. In the waveform window, right click over I(L1) and copy
This immediately shows us that the parallel resistance is a factor of (Q2 + 1) times the text. Then right click over the V(in) icon and change the text to “V(in)/I(L1)”
higher than the series equivalent. to plot the input impedance of the matching network, as shown in Figure 5.
To summarize the previous example, we can use parallel or series reactances to
make a resistor look smaller or larger. The loaded Q of the parallel RC network is
determined by the ratio of its resistance to its reactance. We use this loaded Q to
convert the parallel network into a series network and then choose the real part
of the source impedance to equal the real part of the (series) load impedance,
then choose a reactive part of the source impedance to be equal but opposite to
the reactive part of the series load impedance.
50 Ω Rload
XP1 XP2
2.1 Ω
V1
Matching Network
Figure 6. Changing the y-axes from Bode to Cartesian. Figure 9. The matching T network with a virtual resistor.
The final plot is shown in Figure 7 with the real values plotted on the left axis and In the L network, we used a series inductor to cancel out the reactance of a series
the imaginary values plotted on the right axis. Moving a cursor to the 100 MHz capacitor (to create a short circuit). In the T network, we also use a parallel induc-
position, we can see that the input impedance of the matching network is indeed tor to cancel out the reactance of a parallel capacitor (to create an open circuit).
50 Ω with very little imaginary component.
Looking at Figure 9, we know that the series impedance XS2 (whether a capaci-
tor or inductor) translates the series 2.1 Ω load resistor to a larger equivalent
parallel resistance, plus some arbitrary parallel reactance. Therefore, we can
choose XP2 to be equal but opposite to this arbitrary parallel reactance and cre-
ate an open circuit. We are then left with the 2.1 Ω resistor looking like a larger
parallel resistor with no reactive element.
The 2.1 Ω load now looks like a much larger virtual resistor, Rv, as shown in
Figure 9. Note that the resistor Rv is not actually placed in the circuit—we have
merely made the 2.1 Ω resistor look like it has a larger value when viewed from
the position of Rv. Indeed, to simplify the circuit, we could replace the 2.1 Ω resis-
Figure 7. The final plot showing a near 50 + j0 match at 100 MHz.
tor, XS2, and XP2 with Rv and the circuit will present the same impedance at
one specific frequency when viewed from the source.
Unfortunately, if we close the waveform window and rerun the simulation, we
need to re-probe V(in) and I(L1), divide one by the other, then change the y-axes By rearranging Equation 6 to read
to show the Cartesian values. This tedium can be avoided by selecting the wave- Q = Rp – 1 (10)
form window and choosing File > Save Plot Settings As, as shown in Figure 8. Rs
This saves the setup of the current waveform screen and automatically re-plots We can see that the larger this virtual resistor is compared with the source
the waveforms with the next simulation. resistor of 50 Ω, the larger is the circuit’s Q. Thus, we can modify XS2 and XP2 to
make Rv look like any value and thus give us our desired circuit Q. We can then
use the methodology used for an L network to match the source impedance (50 Ω)
to the load resistor, Rv. We then use XP1 to make Rv look like a smaller series
resistor (ideally 50 Ω), plus some arbitrary series reactance and we choose XS1 to
be equal but opposite to this arbitrary series reactance, so we are left with the
50 Ω source resistance feeding into a 50 Ω load resistance, but still maintaining
a high Q.
Let’s go through the methodology. We need to match the 50 Ω source to a 2.1 Ω
load at 100 MHz with a desired circuit Q of 10. We are aiming to make the circuit
of Figure 9 look like an L network with a 50 Ω source and a larger value load
resistor, Rv. We first need to convert the 2.1 Ω to a higher value (parallel) resistor.
We know that a series reactance, XS2, transforms the 2.1 Ω into a larger parallel
resistance, so from Equation 4
Figure 8. Saving the plot settings saves the y-axis configuration and plotted waveforms. Xs
10 = (11)
2.1 Ω
Designing for a Known Q So XS2 = 21 Ω.
In the previous example we used a parallel capacitor to make the 1 kΩ load
resistor look like a 50 Ω series resistor plus some arbitrary series capacitor, We then convert this series circuit to its parallel equivalent using Equation 6.
then picked an inductor to cancel out the reactance of the series capacitor. Rp
2.1 Ω = 2 (12)
10 + 1
This resulted in an L network, as shown in Figure 4. Unfortunately, the match-
ing network in Figure 4 does not allow us to choose the Q—this is determined So Rp is 212.1 Ω. This is our virtual resistor.
by the source and load impedances. One way of overcoming this is to use a T
network, as shown in Figure 9, which consists of two back-to-back L networks.
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Therefore, a series resistance of 2.1 Ω and a series reactance of 21 Ω looks like a The component values are shown in Table 1.
larger parallel resistor of 212.1 Ω plus some arbitrary parallel reactance. We then
insert an equal but opposite parallel reactance to cancel this out to create Table 1. The Individual Components of the T Network
an open circuit, so we are just left with our larger parallel resistance. To Component Impedance Component Value
determine the parallel reactance, we use Equation 3, so at 100 MHz
know the resistance and we know the Q, so we can now work out the required
Figure 10. The complete T network.
parallel reactance to achieve this Q. We then create an equivalent series circuit
with the same Q. Inserting a parallel reactance converts this high value parallel Plotting the voltage at the IN node and dividing it by the current flowing into C1,
resistor into a lower value series resistor (of 50 Ω), plus some series reactance. we can see that the input impedance of the matching network is very nearly 50 Ω,
From Equation 3, as shown in Figure 11.
212.1 Ω
1.80 = (15)
Xp
So XP1 = 117.8 Ω.
So a parallel reactance of 117.8 Ω makes the parallel 212.1 Ω resistor look like a series
resistor of 50 Ω. We can then use Equation 4 to calculate the series reactance.
The parallel reactance of 117.8 Ω and resistance of 212.1 Ω has a Q of 1.80. Converting
this to a series circuit with the same Q and a series resistance of 50 Ω enables
us to calculate the series reactance.
From Equation 4,
Xs Figure 11. A plot of the input impedance at 100 MHz.
1.80 = (16)
50 Ω
We can also plot the power transferred to the load by plotting the voltage across
So XS1 = 90 Ω.
the load and the current flowing through the load and multiplying one by the
The parallel resistance of 212.1 Ω and reactance of 117.8 Ω looks like a series other, as shown in Figure 12.
resistance of 50 Ω plus reactance of 90 Ω. If XP1 is a capacitor, this translates to
a series capacitance (of reactance –j90 Ω), hence the series matching compo-
nent has to be inductive (of reactance +j90 Ω) so the reactances cancel.
There are a couple of points to note from the above procedure. Firstly, with a T
network, the design starts at the end of the circuit with the lowest value resistor,
which in the example above is the 2.1 Ω, not the 50 Ω. From Equation 6 we can
see that, if we started with the 50 Ω end, we would calculate a much higher
value for Rv and end up with a huge Q for the right half of the network due to the
much lower load resistor of 2.1 Ω. Secondly, we notice that the series reactances
always have the opposite sign to shunt reactance since we need to ensure that
they cancel each other out. Hence series capacitors generally demand shunt
Figure 12. Maximum power is transferred at 100 MHz.
inductors and vice versa.
It is rare that the load is purely resistive. If the 2.1 Ω load in Figure 10 has a series Appendix
capacitive element of, say, 398 pF (which equals –j4.0 Ω at 100 MHz), this disrupts
The following equations reveal how we derived Equation 6.
the matching network. However, this is easy to overcome. In Figure 10, C2 and
Product
the 2.1 Ω load form a series network that has a Q of 10, determined by the ratio Z=
Sum
of the reactance (–j21 Ω) to the resistance (2.1 Ω). The additional –j4.0 Ω has
increased the overall reactance to –j25 Ω. To maintain the same Q, we need to add jXcp × Rp
Z=
jXcp + Rp
a positive reactance to this series combination that cancels the –j4.0 Ω of the load.
To remove the imaginary term in the denominator:
This can be achieved by adding an inductance of 6.37 nH (which gives a reactance
of +j4.0 Ω) in series with C2 to maintain the ratio of the reactance to the resistance. jXcpRp Rp – jXcp
Z= ×
jXcp + Rp Rp – jXcp
A more convenient way is to increase the value of the capacitance C2 to 93.62
pF. This reduces the reactance to –j17 Ω and the load capacitance then increases jXcpRp2 + Xcp2Rp
Z=
the net series reactance back to –j21 Ω and thus a Q of 10 is maintained. LTspice Rp2 + Xcp2
can be used to provide a sanity check and the final circuit is shown in Figure 13. Tidying up gives
IN Xcp2Rp XcpRp2
Z= 2 +j 2
Rsource C1 C2 Rp + Xcp2 Rp + Xcp2
OUT
V1 50 Ω 17.68 pF 93.62 pF 2.1 Ω
The real part of the above is the value of our new series resistor, Rs. So
L1
AC1 28.61 nH Load Xcp2Rp
Rs = 2
C7 Rp + Xcp2
398 pF
From Equation 3 we know that
Rp
Figure 13. The revised T network matching to a complex load. Xp =
Qp
Figure 14 shows this circuit has a good match to 50 Ω at 100 MHz with maximum so
power transferred. Rp2
Rp
Qp2
Rs =
Rp2
Rp2 +
Qp2
Multiplying by Qp2 and dividing by Rp2 gives
Rp
Rs =
Qp2 + 1
\
About the Author
Simon Bramble graduated from Brunel University in London in 1991 with
a degree in electrical engineering and electronics, specializing in analog
electronics and power. He has spent his career in analog electronics and
Figure 14. Plot of power output and input impedance with a complex load at 100 MHz. worked at Linear Technology (now part of Analog Devices). He can be
reached at simon.bramble@analog.com.
Conclusion
Hopefully this article has demystified the subject of RF impedance matching
and made RF power amplifier circuits easier to understand. Using the loaded Q
of a network, we can switch between series and parallel networks and translate Engage with the ADI technology experts in our online support community.
low value resistors to higher value ones. However, as with any engineering task, Ask your tough design questions, browse FAQs, or join a conversation.
it is always good to have a cross-check for the calculations and LTspice proves
invaluable in plotting the input impedance and the power output of a circuit.
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