ECE 113 Lecture 05:

Components at RF
BEHAVIOR OF CIRCUIT COMPONENTS AT RF

ECE 113: COMMUNICATION ELECTRONICS 1

Series RLC Circuit

Resistor Inductor

Wires
Capacitor

2
In High Frequencies
• Wires
◦ Increased resistance due to skin effect.
◦ Significant self-inductance due to large electrical length.

• Resistors
◦ Wires create self inductance and capacitance.
◦ Wound resistors have large self-inductance.

• Capacitors
◦ Insulator has a finite conductance.
◦ Through-hole wires have self-inductance.

• Inductors
◦ Needs long wires, has a significant resistance and distributed
capacitance.

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Wires
•Metal interconnects, device leads, etc.

•Insulated or un-insulated; solid, hollow, or braided

•Ideally act as short circuit (at DC and low AC freq)

•Behavior in the RF spectrum depends mostly on

diameter and length

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 Skin Effect
•At RF (or AC high frequencies), current density is
concentrated around the “skin” of the conductor.
◦ Due to “eddy currents” induced inside conductor

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 Skin Effect
•e.g. - AWG #22 Copper wire (25.3 mils / 0.64 mm diameter)
at f = 10 kHz

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 Skin Effect
•e.g. - AWG #22 Copper wire (25.3 mils / 0.64 mm diameter)
at f = 1 MHz

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Skin Effect
•Occurs for all conductors including resistor leads,
capacitor leads, etc.
◦ At high frequencies, effects of component leads CANNOT be
neglected

•For a particular conductor, we can quantify skin effect

by computing for the skin depth.

𝜎 𝛿𝑠 @ 10 GHz
Aluminum 3.816 × 107 S 8.14 × 10−7 m
Gold 4.098 × 107 S 7.86 × 10−7 m
Copper 5.813 × 107 S 6.60 × 10−7 m
Silver 6.173 × 107 S 6.40 × 10−7 m

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 Skin Depth, δS
•Depth into the conductor at which the charge-carrier
density falls to 1/e or 37% of its value along the surface.
•A function of frequency (f), permeability (μ) and
conductivity (σ) of the medium.

2 1
S = =
 f

•Can be thought of as the effective depth in which a

uniform current density penetrates into the conductor
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 The “Effect” of Skin Effect
•For AC high freq, most of the current flow inside a good
conductor is concentrated in a very thin region near the
surface of the conductor.

•The effective cross-sectional area of a conductor is reduced

due to skin effect resulting in a considerable increase in AC
resistance for the conductor.
L
R =
 (AEFF  )
•May cause impedance matching problems when cascaded

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 Self-Inductance
•For AC, magnetic field varies in time, and will induce a
voltage (and current) across the conductor which opposes
the change in the current flow.

•This opposition to the change is called the self-inductance.

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 Self-Inductance
•As frequency increases, self-inductance becomes more
significant (will be discussed later - Inductors).

•All conductors exhibit this property of inductance at RF.

•Depends on both length and diameter of conductor.

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Inductance of
Straight-Wire Conductors
4𝓁
𝐿 = 0.002𝓁 2.3 log − 0.75 𝜇𝐻
𝑑

•L = inductance (in μH)

•l = length of wire (in cm)
•d = diameter of wire (in cm)

•NOTE: This is an approximation (from Bowick) that assumes

conductor is non-magnetic and has l >> d

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Resistors
•Resistance - property of a material that determines the
rate at which electrical energy is converted to heat
energy for a given electric current

•Resistors are used extensively in circuits

◦ Bias networks, signal combiners, attenuators, matching
networks, etc.

•RF characteristics vary significantly from resistor DC

equivalent - may even disrupt circuit operation

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 Resistor at RF
•Resistor Equivalent Circuit

R – Resistor value
L – Lead inductance
C – Combination of
parasitic capacitances

•Parasitic capacitances vary significantly between different

resistor structures

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Common Resistor Types
•Carbon Composition Resistors

•Wire-Wound Resistors

•Metal-Film Resistors

•Thin-Film Chip Resistors

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 Comparison of Resistors
Type Image Peformance at RF
High capacitance due to carbon
Carbon
granules
Composition
Poor RF response

High inductance due to windings

Wire-Wound
Poor RF response

Inductance and capacitance are

Metal Film small
Useful up to 10 MHz

Inductance and capacitance are

Thin Film Chip greatly reduced
~0 parasitics up to 2 GHz

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Capacitors
•Capacitance - property that permits storage of charge
when a potential difference exists between conductors
separated by an insulating material or dielectric

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Applications of Capacitors

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 Common Dielectrics
Dielectric Constant
Dielectric K or εr
Air 1
Polystyrene 2.5
Paper 4
Mica 5
Mylar (Polyester Film) 3.2
Ceramic (low K) 10
Ceramic (high K) 100 – 10,000

•Dielectric’s characteristics determine voltage level

extremes and temperature dependence

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 Capacitors at RF
•Capacitor Equivalent Circuit
C – Capacitance
RS – Series Resistance
RP – Insulation
Resistance
L – Inductance of
leads

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Capacitor Considerations (at
RF)
•Insulation Resistance (RP)
◦ Measure of amount of DC leakage current that flows
through dielectric of capacitor when voltage is applied
◦ RP ≈ 100 GΩ (Resistance at DC)

•Effective Series Resistance (ESR)

◦ RP and RS combined
◦ AC resistance of capacitor
◦ Decreases w/ frequency
•C in uF
PF
ESR = (110 6 )[],  = 2f
C
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Capacitor Considerations (at
RF)
•Dissipation Factor (DF)
◦ Ratio of the AC Resistance to the Capacitor’s Reactance

ESR
DF = x100%
XC
•Component Quality Factor (Component Q)
◦ Measure of the ability of an element to store energy

XC 1 1
QC = = =
ESR C ( ESR) DF
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Quality Factor for Capacitor
•The larger the Q, the better the capacitor.

•Measures how close to ideal the capacitor is.

•Ideally, Q = ∞.

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Capacitor Impedance vs. Freq.

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Internal Inductance of
Capacitors
•Larger-valued capacitors tend to exhibit higher internal
inductance than smaller-valued capacitors.

•Impedance ZC↓ as freq↑ NOT necessarily true.

•Only way to be sure is to use an LCR Meter or a

Network Analyzer to measure actual impedance,
especially when working with circuits at frequencies
100MHz and above.

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Common Capacitor Types
•Ceramic Capacitors

•Mica Capacitors

•Metalized Film (Teflon, Polystyrene, Polyester, Paper)

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 Comparison of Capacitors
Type Image Characteristics/Uses

Performance largely dependent on

Ceramic dielectric constant
Higher 𝜖𝑟 , poorer RF performance

Multilayer
Useful above 500 MHz
Ceramic Chip
High Q factor
(MLCC)

Low 𝜖𝑟 , Bulky
Metalized
Stable temperature characteristics
Film
Used in resonant circuits

Bulkier than Metalized Film

Thin Film Chip Used for filtering, bypassing, and
coupling

EEE 107: INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS 28

Inductors
•Wire-wound or coiled as to increase flux linkage NΦ
between the N turns of the coil.
◦ Increasing NΦ increases the wire’s self inductance L

Nf
L=
i
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Applications of Inductors
•Resonant circuits, filters, phase-shift and delay
networks, and as RF chokes

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 Inductors (at RF)
•Probably the component
most prone to very drastic
changes over frequency

•Distributed capacitance
and series resistance play
a major role in the
performance of an
inductor

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Inductors (at RF)
•Inductor Equivalent Circuit

L – Inductance
RS – AC Resistance
Cd – Distributed
Capacitance

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 Inductor Impedance vs. Freq

•The RS keeps the impedance finite at resonance. It also

broadens the resonance peak

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 Inductor Considerations (at RF)
•Component Quality ▪ Q variation versus frequency
Factor
◦ Measures
how close to ideal the
inductor is

XL
QL =
RS

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Inductor Design
•Ways to increase the Q of an inductor
◦ Use a larger diameter wire
◦ Decrease DC and AC resistance to some extent

◦ Spread windings apart

◦ Decrease distributed capacitance

◦ Increase the permeability of the flux-linkage

path
◦ Winding around a magnetic-core material

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Single-Layer Air-Core Inductor
Design
2 2
0.394r N
L= H
9r + 10l
Where:
•r – coil radius (in cm) l – coil length (in cm)
•N – number or turns L – inductance (in uH)

Notes:
•When l > 0.67r, L is accurate to 1%
•Optimum Q is attained when l = 2r

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Magnetic Core Materials
•Has greater permeability than air

•Allows an inductor to have greater inductance with

fewer turns

•Advantages
◦ Smaller size
◦ Increased Q
◦ Variability

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Magnetic Core Materials
•Disadvantages
◦ Each core tends to introduce losses
◦ Permeability of all magnetic cores changes with frequency
◦ The higher the permeability, the more sensitive to temp.
variation
◦ The permeability changes w/ the applied signal level

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 Toroids
•Ring or doughnut-shaped
magnetic material widely used
to wind RF inductors and
transformers
•Usually made of iron or ferrite
•W/ very high permeability thus
allowing higher Q
•Almost completely contain the
magnetic flux w/ in itself

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 Self-shielding

Contains the magnetic flux within

Radiates RF signals flowing within the material itself

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Summary

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Summary

Original
Components

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