Preface
This book is intended as a textbook for a senior/first-year graduate-level course in transmission lines in electrical engineering (EE) and computer engineering (CpE) curricula. It has been class tested at the author's institution, Mercer University, and contains virtually all the material needed for a student to become competent in all aspects of transmission lines in today's high-frequency analog and high-speed digital world. The book is also essential for industry professionals as a compact review of transmission-line fundamentals.
Until as recently as a decade ago, digital system clock speeds and data rates were in the hundreds of megahertz range. Prior to that time, the “lands” on printed circuit boards (PCBs) that interconnect the electronic modules had little or no impact on the proper functioning of those electronic circuits. Today, the clock and data speeds have moved into the low gigahertz range. As the demand for faster data processing continues to escalate, these speeds will no doubt continue to increase into the gigahertz frequency range. In addition, analog communication frequencies have also moved steadily into the gigahertz range and will no doubt continue to increase. Although the physical dimensions of these lands and the PCBs supporting them have not changed significantly over these intervening years, the spectral content of the signals they carry has increased significantly. Because of this the electrical dimensions (in wavelengths) of the lands have ...
