ABSTRACT
Guiding systems normally have a uniform cross section, and are classified into transmission lines, having two or more separate conductors, and waveguides, consisting of a single conductor or only dielectrics. This chapter presents a field analysis of two-conductor transmission lines, which is important for understanding physical processes that constitute the propagation and attenuation along a line of a given geometry and material composition. All real transmission lines have some losses, which, in general, consist of losses in conductors and losses in the dielectric of the line. However, for lines used in engineering practice, these losses, evaluated per unit length of the line, are small. A transverse electromagnetic (TEM) wave propagates along a lossless transmission line with conductors of arbitrary cross section and a homogeneous dielectric. At a given frequency, two low-loss transmission lines have the same characteristic impedance, phase coefficient, phase velocity, wavelength, and attenuation coefficient.
