Appendix C

Ideal and Lumped Transmission Lines

A transmission line delivers an output signal at a distance from the point of signal input. Any two conductors can make up a transmission line. The signal that is transmitted from one end of the pair to the other end is the voltage between the conductors. Power transmission lines, telephone lines, and waveguides are examples of transmission lines. Traces on printed circuit boards and multichip modules (MCMs) in integrated circuits are other electrical elements that are examples of transmission lines.

With current technologies that use high-speed active devices on both ends of most circuit traces, all of the following transmission line effects must be considered during circuit analysis:

Star-Hspice provides accurate modeling for all kinds of circuit connections, including both lossless (ideal) and lossy transmission line elements.

This chapter describes:

Star-Hspice Manual - Release 2001.2 - June 2001