TDR profile impedance of power cable

A. POPOVICI, S. CARRAUX Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - Lausanne, Switzerland

1 Introduction
Time-domain reflectometry (TDR) is a measurement technique that is used to study transmission line systems. It is very useful in locating and evaluating discontinuities on a line. The method can also characterize nonuniform communication paths and display the evolution of the cable impedance. In our case we are interested in caracterizing electrical power cables for high bit rate data transmission purpose.

2 Method
A time-domain reflectometer (TDR) consist in a function generator which injects a step with a very short rise time and an oscilloscope directly connected to the input of the cable under test. The waveform at the junction of the generator and the cable being tested is monitored and displayed by the oscilloscope. This waveform is the initial step plus any reflections that are created by the discontinuities in the cable. To make it easier to interpret, the TDR screen is calibrated vertically in a nondimensional unit called reflection coefficient ( r ) and horizontally in meters. The vertical scales reflection coefficient is a variable that relates the reflected voltage sensed at the cable-TDR junction to a scale equaling +1 for an open circuit and -1 for a short circuit. For the horizontal scale, the period of time between the launching of the pulse into the cable and the sensing of a reflection is measured. Since this value when halved is proportional to the distance to the point in the cable from which the reflection originates, the horizontal scale can be calibrate in meters.

3 Algorithm
The subroutine uses an algorithm [1] that assumes the transmission path may be represented as N small, uniform segments of ideal transmission lines with identical lengths and propagation velocities.

TDR profile impedance of power cable

14 June 1999

The routine is developed with the aid of a lattice diagram shown on figure 1. The diagram represents the propagation of the time-domain reflectometers step voltage down the transmission line and the forward and backward reflections generated by it.
Time

r1
i=1 r1 i=2 r2-r1 i=3 r3-r2 i=4 r4-r3 i=5 r5-r4
A

Z1

r2

Z2

r3

Z3

r4

Z4

r5

Z5

Zi

b1 f1

b2

b3 f2

f3

bi-1

fi-1

bi

fi

Distance

FIGURE 1. Lattice diagram

The impedance of any line segment and the effects of both backward and forward reflections must be considered in the algorithm. The reflection affects the measured value of r and thus must be accounted for before r is used to calculate the actual impedance of a segment. Once the impedances of any two cable segments, Zi and Zi+1, have been computed, the backward and forward reflections resulting from the junction between them can be calculated. Using the forward wave generated by the preceding junction of Zi-2 and Zi-1 (fi-1) and the backward wave generated by Z i and Zi+1 (bi), the following equations yield the new waves: bi 1 = ( 1 ri ) bi + ri fi 1 = bi + ri ( fi 1 bi ) f i = ( 1 r i ) f i 1 r i b i = f i 1 + r i ( f i 1 b i ) where: ( Zi Zi 1 ) r i = -------------------------( Zi + Zi 1 ) (1) (2)

(3)

At a TDR observation point ri, the cable structure can be determined only up through segment Zi, because the initail TDR step must take a trip to segment Zi and back to convey information about it. In the figure 1, all forward and backward waves are known at and above the lattice diagonal leading from A to B. Waves below the diagonal are unknown.

TDR profile impedance of power cable

14 June 1999

Consider the observation at point A. A new backward wave of amplitude r5-r4 comes from the cable and is superimposed on the TDR waveform. At this point, reflection coefficients r 1 through r 4 are known; r 5 is to be determined. A description of the procedure follows, using iteration i=5 as an example: Compute r5-r4 and save it for later use. Inject a forward wave f0= 0. Assume that r 5 = 0 (that is b4= 0) and compute incomplete backward and forward waves b3, f4, b2, f3, b1, f2, b0 and f1 in that order (the waves are called incomplete because they dont account for any reflection from segment Z5). Each wave is calculated from the two waves just above it (just previous to it in time), using equations 1, 2 and 3. Even with highly accurate data, the synthesis subroutine has its limitations. Its algorithm computes the equivalent impedances of small ideal transmission line segments. Various factors- high frequency losses, inductance and capacitance, variations in propagation velocities, step rise time can distort the correspondence between the real test cable and the synthesized one. The algorithm assumes that all cable segments have a finite, positive impedance. However, in some cases where components other than transmission lines are part of the transmission path, it is not possible for the subroutine to synthesize the impedance profile because a negative impedance is required. For instance, the synthesis subroutine will print out a warning message and will exit. On the figure below, we can see the result in HP VEE. The first graph is the reflexion coefficient and in the second graph, the profile impedance calculated.

FIGURE 2. Result in HP VEE

TDR profile impedance of power cable

14 June 1999

4 Program structure
The program can be divided into three parts. The first part will be the declaration of the variables, the second include the main loop and the last one, the calculation of the impedance profile. In the figure 3, here is a screen copy of the HP VEE program [2]. In the initialisation part, we have to specify the initial value of the impedance profil which correspond to the internal impedance of the generator. 2. Synthesis algorithm 1. Initialization

3. TDR impedance convert reflection coefficient to Ohms

FIGURE 3. Main program structure in HP VEE environment.

TDR profile impedance of power cable

14 June 1999

5 Measurements
First, we have to do the calibration in order to provide to the computer three reference waveforms: open-circuit, short-circuit and 50 Ohm terminations. We apply a step signal down the cable to be measured, then we save the waveform at the input of the cable which will be considered as the reflexion profile, thus it is important for the calculating process that the signal is calibrated between +1 (open circuit) and -1 (short circuit). On figure 4 and 5, we can see the results of the two measurements (50 and 75 Ohm characteristic impedance cables) for open and short circuit at the end of the cable.


Open circuit
'

u P%  r p h q # r D !

50 Ohm

Short circuit
  ! # Grtu % '

FIGURE 4. Impedance profile for 50 Ohm cable, open and short circuit



Open circuit 75 Ohm

'

u P%  r p h q r # D !

Short circuit
  ! # Grtu % '

FIGURE 5. Impedance profile for 75 Ohm cable, open and short circuit

We have also considered the two coaxial cables with different characteristic impedance together. The first section, of characteristic impedance 75 Ohm, is about 4.5 m length and following it, the second one, of characteristic impedance 50 Ohm, is about 6 m length.

TDR profile impedance of power cable

14 June 1999

On the next figure, here is the three configuration measured, the two cables alone and finally both connected together, all with an open ended connection.The first figure show us the input voltage in term of reflexion coefficient and the second one, the impedance profile deduced from the reflexion coefficient.
!

75 Ohm 50 Ohm

75 & 50 Ohm

Open circuit

'  %   s s r # p v ! r y s r  S  !  ! " # $

#

% Grtu



75 & 50 Ohm 75 Ohm

' u P %  r p h q # r D !

50 Ohm

Open circuit

   ! Grtu " # $

FIGURE 6. Reflexion coefficient for 50 and 75 Ohm cable with open circuit at the end

We can clearly see the 75 Ohm cable followeb by the 50 Ohm (which is longer) and finally the impedance value grow (for length >100) to >600 Ohm (in theory, we could have an infinite value which correspond to open circuit!).


75 Ohm
'

50 Ohm

u % P  r p h q r # D !

75 & 50 Ohm

   ! " # $ % & ' (  

Grtu

FIGURE 7. Profile impedance for 50 and 75 Ohm cable with open circuit at the end
TDR profile impedance of power cable 14 June 1999 6

The figure 8 show now the three configurations ended by a short circuit. Here the impedance profile show clearly the two cables.


'

u % P  r p h q r # D !

75 & 50 Ohm 50 Ohm

75 Ohm
   ! Grtu "

Short circuit
# $



'

u P%  r p h q # r D !

75 & 50 Ohm 50 Ohm

75 Ohm
   ! " # $ % & ' (  

Grtu

FIGURE 8. Profile impedance for 50 and 75 Ohm cable with short circuit at the end

TDR profile impedance of power cable

14 June 1999

Now, we consider a single three phases electrical cable of about 30 m. The figure 9 shows the reflexion coefficient (left scale) and deduced from it the impedance profile (right scale).
! $

 '  r p r r  #

Reflexion coeff.

#

 %

"

Impedance
!

 !

u P  r p h q r D

   !  ! " # 

 # Grtu

FIGURE 9. Reflexion coefficient and impedance profile, open circuit ended

   !  ! " #

#

"  r p  % r r  ' !  #

u P  r p h q r D

Reflexion coeff.


Impedance
 Grtu

FIGURE 10. Reflexion coefficient and impedance profile, short circuit ended

TDR profile impedance of power cable

14 June 1999

6 Conclusion
The method presented in this document is a good and fast evaluation process to determine the impedance profile of an unknown cable. The main drawback remain in the implementation which has three loop and need a lot of calculation time. An other problem encountered in this method is the precision. To improve this, we could increase the number of acquisition points and consequently the calculation time.

7 Bibliography
[1] TDRs profile impedances of backplanes and PC boards N. Megill, July 14th, 1981, pp. 113- 117 [2] Visual programming with HP VEE R. Helsel, Hewlett-Packard Professional body 1997 [3] Data transmission design seminar Texas Instrument, 1997

TDR profile impedance of power cable

14 June 1999