Coaxial cable

Coaxial cable is an electrical cable consisting of a round conducting wire, surrounded by an insulating spacer, surrounded by a cylindrical conducting sheath, usually surrounded by a final insulating layer. It is used as a high-frequency transmission line to carry a high-frequency or broadband signal. Sometimes DC power (called bias) is added to the signal to supply the equipment at the other end, as in direct broadcast satellite receivers. Because the electromagnetic field carrying the signal exists (ideally) only in the space between the inner and outer conductors, it cannot interfere with or suffer interference from external electromagnetic fields.

Coaxial cables may be rigid or flexible. Rigid types have a solid sheath, while flexible types have a braided sheath, both usually of thin copper wire. The inner insulator, also called the dielectric, has a significant effect on the cable's properties, such as its characteristic impedance and its attenuation. The dielectric may be solid or perforated with air spaces. Connections to the ends of coaxial cables are usually made with RF connectors.

Signal propagation

Open wire transmission lines have the property that the electromagnetic wave propagating down the line extends into the space surrounding the parallel wires. These lines have low loss, but also have undesirable characteristics. They cannot be bent, twisted or otherwise shaped without changing their characteristic impedance. They also cannot be run along or attached to anything conductive, as the extended fields will induce currents in the nearby conductors causing unwanted radiation and detuning of the line.

Coaxial lines solve this problem by confining the electromagnetic wave to the area inside the cable, between the center conductor and the shield. The transmission of energy in the line occurs totally through the dielectric inside the cable between the conductors. Coaxial lines can therefore be bent and twisted (subject to limits) without negative effects, and they can be strapped to conductive supports without inducing unwanted currents in them. The inner conductor can be made of braid and the outer conductor can be made of corrugated tube for greater flexibility, but this comes at the cost of increased ohmic losses and lower phase velocity. The outer conductor can also be made of (in order of increasing leakage) wound foil, woven tape, or braid.

In radio-frequency applications up to a few gigahertz, the wave propagates only in the transverse electric magnetic (TEM) mode, which means that the electric and magnetic fields are both perpendicular to the direction of propagation. However, above a certain cutoff frequency, transverse electric (TE) and/or transverse magnetic (TM) modes can also propagate, as they do in a waveguide. It is usually undesirable to transmit signals above the cutoff frequency, since it may cause multiple modes with different phase velocities to propagate, interfering with each other. The outer diameter is roughly inversely proportional to the cutoff frequency.

Coaxial cables require an internal structure of an insulating (dielectric) material to maintain the spacing between the center conductor and shield. Unfortunately, all dielectrics have loss associated with them, which causes most coaxial lines to have more loss than open wire lines. In typical applications the loss in polyethylene is comparable to the ohmic loss at 1 GHz and the loss in PTFE is comparable to ohmic losses at 10 GHz. Most cables have a solid dielectric; others have a foam dielectric which contains as much air as possible to reduce the losses. Foam coax will have about 15% less attenuation but can absorb moisture — especially at its many surfaces — in humid environments, increasing the loss. Stars or spokes are even better, but more expensive. Furthermore the lower dielectric constant of air allows for a greater inner diameter at the same impedance and a greater outer diameter at the same cutoff frequency, lowering ohmic losses.

Connectors

From the signal point of view, a connector can be viewed as a short, rigid cable. The connector usually has the same impedance as the related cable and probably has a similar cutoff frequency although its dielectric may be different. High-quality connectors are usually gold or rhodium plated, with lower-quality connectors using nickel or tin plating. Silver is occasionally used in some high-end connectors due to its excellent conductivity, but it usually requires extra plating of another metal since silver readily oxidizes in the presence of air.

One increasing development has been the wider adoption of micro-miniature coaxial cable in the consumer electronics sector in recent years. Wire and cable companies such as Tyco, Sumitomo Electric, Hitachi Cable, Fujikura and LS Cable all manufacture these cables, which can be used in cellular phones.

Important parameters

The characteristic impedance in ohms (Ω) is calculated from the ratio of the inner and outer diameters and the dielectric constant. Assuming the dielectric properties of the material inside the cable do not vary appreciably over the operating range of the cable, this impedance is frequency independent.
Capacitance, in farads per metre.
Resistance, in ohms per metre.
Attenuation or loss, in decibels per metre. This is dependent on the loss in the dielectric material filling the cable, and resistive losses in the center conductor and shield. These losses are frequency dependent, the losses becoming higher as the frequency increases. In designing a system, engineers must consider not only the loss in the actual cable itself, but also the insertion loss in the connectors.
Outside diameter, which dictates which connectors must be used to terminate the cable.
Velocity of propagation, which depends on the type of dielectric.
Cutoff frequency

Standards

Most coaxial cables have a characteristic impedance of either 50, 52, 75, or 93 ohms. The RF industry uses standard type-names for coaxial cables.

A series of standard types of coaxial cable were specified for military uses, in the form "RG-#" or "RG-#/U" (RG from Radio Guide, /U indicates multiple uses). They go back to World War II and were listed in MIL-HDBK-216 published in 1962. These designations are now obsolete. The current military standard is MIL-SPEC MIL-C-17. MIL-C-17 numbers, such as "M17/75-RG214," are given for military cables and manufacturer's catalog numbers for civilian applications. However, the RG-series designations were so common for generations that they are still used, although critical users should be aware that since the handbook is withdrawn there is no standard to guarantee the electrical and physical characteristics of a cable described as "RG-# type". The RG designators are mostly used to identify compatible connectors that fit the inner conductor, dielectric, and jacket dimensions of the old RG-series cables. For example:

type	approx. imped. ^*	core	dielectric			overall diameter		braid	velocity factor	comments
type	approx. imped. ^*	core	type	^*	^*	^*	^*	braid	velocity factor	comments
RG-6/U	75	18 AWG	PE	0.185	4.7	0.332	8.4	double		low loss at high frequency for cable television, satellite television and cable modems
RG-6/UQ	75	18 AWG	PE					quad		This is "quad shield RG-6". It has four layers of shielding, regular RG-6 only has one or two
RG-8/U	50		PE			0.405	10.3			used for thick Ethernet (10base5) and amateur radio
RG-9/U	51		PE			0.420	10.7
RG-11/U	75	14 AWG	PE	0.285	7.2	0.412	10.5		0.66	Used for long drops and underground
RG-58/U	50		PE	0.116	2.9	0.195	5.0	single	0.66	used for radiocommunication and amateur radio and thin Ethernet (10base2)
RG-59/U	75	20 AWG	PE	0.146	3.7	0.242	6.1	single	0.66	used to carry baseband video in closed-circuit television, previously used for cable television
RG-62/U	92		PE			0.242	6.1	single	0.84	used for ARCNET
RG-174	50			0.100	2.5			single
RG-178/U	50					0.079	2.0	single
RG-179/U	75					0.094	2.4	single
RG-213/U	50	7×0.0296 in Cu	PE	0.285	7.2	0.405	10.3	single	0.66	for radiocommunication and amateur radio, EMC test antenna cables
RG-316/U	50	7×0.0067 in	PTFE	0.060	1.5	0.102	2.6	single
H155	50								0.79	lower loss at high frequency for radiocommunication and amateur radio
H500	50								0.82	low loss at high frequency for radiocommunication and amateur radio

References for this section

RF transmission lines and fittings. Military Standardization Handbook MIL-HDBK-216, U.S. Department of Defense, 4 January 1962. ^*
Withdrawal Notice for MIL-HDBK-216 2001
Cables, radio frequency, flexible and rigid. Details Specification MIL-DTL-17H, 19 August 2005 (superseding MIL-C-17G, 9 March 1990). ^*
Radio-frequency cables. International Standard IEC 60096.
H. P. Westman et al, (ed), Reference Data for Radio Engineers, Fifth Edition, 1968, Howard W. Sams and Co., no ISBN, Library of Congress Card No. 43-14665

Significance of impedance

A question that is often asked is what the significance of a 50 or 75 ohm characteristic impedance is. The best coaxial cable impedances to use in high-power, high-voltage, and low-attenuation applications was experimentally determined in 1929 at Bell Laboratories to be 30, 60, and 77 ohms respectively. 30 ohm cable is exceedingly hard to make however, so a compromise between 30 ohms and 60 ohms was reached at 50 ohms, which has stuck. 75 ohms is just easier than 77 ohms and has also stuck as a popular impedance.

Uses

Short coaxial cables are commonly used to connect home video equipment, or in ham radio setups. They used to be common for implementing computer networks, in particular Ethernet, but twisted pair cables have replaced them in most applications.

Long distance coaxial cable is used to connect radio networks and television networks, though this has largely been superseded by other more high-tech methods (fibre optics, T1/E1, satellite). It is still common for carrying cable television signals.

Micro coaxial cables are used in a range of consumers devices, military equipment, and also in ultra-sound scanning equipment.

Types

In broadcasting and other forms of radio communication, hard line is a very heavy-duty coaxial cable, where the outside shielding is a rigid or semi-rigid pipe, rather than flexible and braided wire. Hard line is very thick, typically at least a half inch or 13 mm and up to several times that, and has low loss even at high power. It is almost always used in the connection between a transmitter on the ground and the antenna or aerial on the tower. Hard lines are often made to be pressurised with nitrogen or desiccated air, which provide an excellent dielectric even at the high temperatures generated by thousands of watts of RF power, especially during intense summer heat and sunshine. Physical separation between the inner conductor and outer shielding is maintained by spacers, usually made out of tough solid plastics like nylon.

Triaxial cable or triax is coaxial cable with a third layer of shielding, insulation and sheathing. The outer shield, which is earthed (grounded), protects the inner shield from electromagnetic interference from outside sources.

Twin-axial cable or twinax is a balanced, twisted pair within a cylindrical shield. It allows a nearly perfect differential signal which is both shielded and balanced to pass through. Multi-conductor coaxial cable is also sometimes used.

Biaxial cable or biax is a figure-8 configuration of two 50 ohm coaxial cables, used in some proprietary computer networks.

Semi-rigid cable is a coaxial form using a solid copper outer sheath. This type of coax offers superior screening compared to cables with a braided outer conductor, especially at higher frequencies. The major disadvantage is that the cable, as its name implies, is not very flexible, and is not intended to be flexed after initial forming.

Interference and troubleshooting

Despite being shielded, interference can occur on coaxial cable lines. Eventually, the insulation degrades and the cable must be replaced, especially if it has been exposed to the elements on a continuous basis. The copper screen is normally grounded, and if even a single thread touches the inner copper core, the signal will be shorted out. This most often occurs at improperly installed end connectors and splices. Also, the connector or splice must be properly attached to the copper screen, as this provides the return electrical path for the signal. Low frequency signals (below 100 MHz) can penetrate the shield while high frequency signals cannot.

For cable television it is important to use the correct type of coaxial cable. RG-59/U should be avoided, and only RG-6/U, or in cases of severe interference, RG-6/UQ (quad-shield) used. Many consumers have purchased the cheaper RG-59/U to use as an extension for cable television, only to find it causes severe interference. Also, unknown to most cable television customers, leakage of signals can cause interference to aircraft communications which operate on the same frequency as several cable channels. This may even be a violation of the law.

In the United States and some other countries, cable channels 2-13 share the same frequency as those from television broadcast towers. If the cable consumer is too close to a television tower and the cable company provides the same station on the like channel, interference and 'ghosting' may result. The solution is to make sure the cable signal is at the maximum allowed strength (especially if splitters are used for multiple TV sets), as this will increase the signal-to-noise level (the "noise" being the pickup of the broadcast tower). Using the more expensive quad-shield coaxial cable also helps reduce interference. Only industrial-quality cable TV amplifiers (generally not available at retail) should be used to amplify weak signals. Cheaper ones, sold at consumer electronics stores, often cause more problems than they solve.

Timeline

1884 — Coaxial cable patented in Germany by Ernst Werner von Siemens, but with no known application. more details needed
1894 — Oliver Lodge demonstrates waveguide transmission at the Royal Institution. Nikola Tesla receives , Electrical Conductor, on February 6.
1929 — First modern coaxial cable patented by Lloyd Espenschied and Herman Affel of AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories, .
1934 — First transmission of TV pictures on coaxial cable, from the Berlin Olympic Games to Leipzig.
1936 — AT&T installs experimental coaxial TV cable between New York and Philadelphia.
1936 — Coaxial cable laid by the Post Office (now BT) between London and Birmingham, providing 40 telephone channels. archives at http://www.bt.com
1941 — First commercial use in USA by AT&T, between Minneapolis, Minnesota and Stevens Point, Wisconsin. L1 system with capacity of one TV channel or 480 telephone circuits.
1956 — First transatlantic coaxial cable laid, TAT-1.

External links

References

Signal cables

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Coaxial cable