Time-domain response of multiconductor transmission lines

Abstract

Evaluation of the time-domain response of multiconductor transmission lines is of great importance in the analysis of the crosstalk in fast digital circuit interconnections, as well as in the analysis of power lines. Several techniques for the computation of the line response, starting from the known circuit-theory parameters, are presented and evaluated. These methods are: time-stepping solution of the telegrapher equations, modal analysis in the time domain, model analysis in the frequency domain, and a convolution technique which uses line Green's functions. The last method can treat the most general case of lossy transmission lines with nonlinear terminal networks. Numerical and experimental results are presented to illustrate these techniques and to give insight into the crosstalk problems in fast digital circuits.