EECS 117

Lecture 26: TE and TM Waves

Prof. Niknejad
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 1/22
TE Waves
TE means that e
z
= 0 but h
z
= 0. If k
c
= 0, we can use
our solutions directly
H
x
=
j
k
2
c
h
z
x
H
y
=
j
k
2
c
h
z
y
E
x
=
j
k
2
c
h
z
y
E
y
=
j
k
2
c
h
z
x
Since k
c
= 0, we nd h
z
from the Helmholtzs Eq.
_

2
x
2
+

2
y
2
+

2
z
2
+ k
2
_
H
z
= 0
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 2/22
TE Wave Helmholtz Eq.
Since H
z
= h
z
(x, y)e
jz
_
_
_

2
x
2
+

2
y
2

2
+ k
2
. .
k
2
c
_
_
_
h
z
= 0
Solving the above equation is sufcient to nd all the
elds.
We can also dene a wave impedance to simplify the
computation
Z
TE
=
E
x
H
y
=
E
y
H
x
=

University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 3/22

Wave Cutoff Frequency
Since =
_
k
2
k
2
c
, we see that the impedance is not
constant as a function of frequency.
In fact, for wave propagation we require to be real, or
k > k
c

> k
c
>
k
c

=
c
For wave propagation, the frequency must be larger
than the cutoff frequency
c
Thus the waveguide acts like a high-pass lter
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 4/22
TM Waves
Now the situation is the dual of the TE case, e
z
= 0 but
h
z
= 0
Our equations simplify down to
H
x
=
j
k
2
c
e
z
y
H
y
=
j
k
2
c
e
z
x
E
x
=
j
k
2
c
e
z
x
E
y
=
j
k
2
c
e
z
y
And for k
c
= 0, our reduced Helmholtzs Eq. for E
z
_

2
x
2
+

2
y
2
+ k
2
c
_
e
z
= 0
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 5/22
TM Wave Impedance
With e
z
known, all the elds can be derived from the
above equations
The wave impedance is given by
Z
TM
=
E
x
H
y
=
E
y
H
x
=

Since =
_
k
2
k
2
c
, we see that the impedance is not
constant as a function of frequency.
The same high-pass cutoff behavior is also seen with
the TM wave
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 6/22
TE/TM Wave General Solution
1. Solve the reduced Helmholtz eq. for e
z
or h
z
2. Compute the transverse elds
3. Apply the boundary conditions to nd k
c
and any
unknown constants
4. Compute =
_
k
2
k
2
c
, so that = j and Z
TM
=

University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 7/22

Parallel Plate Waveguide
x
y
z
d

w
Consider a simple parallel plate waveguide structure
Lets begin by nding the properties of a TEM mode of
propagation
Last lecture we found that the TEM wave has an
electrostatic solution in the transverse plane. We can
thus solve this problem by solving Laplaces eq. in the
region 0 y d and 0 x wn

2
= 0
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 8/22
Voltage Potential of TEM Mode
The waveguide structure imposes the boundary
conditions on the surface of the conductors
(x, 0) = 0
(x, d) = V
0
Neglecting fringing elds for simplicity, we have
(x, y) = Ay + B
The rst boundary condition requires that B 0 and the
second one can be used to solve for A = V
0
/d.
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 9/22
Transverse Fields of TEM Mode
E
H

s = Dn
J
s
= H
t
The electric eld is now computed from the potential
e(x, y) =
t
=
_

x
x +

y
y
_
= y
V
0
d
E = e(x, y)e
jz
= y
V
0
d
e
jkz
H =
z E
Z
TEM
= x
V
0
d
e
jkz
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 10/22
Guide Voltages and Currents
The E and H elds are shown above. Notice that the
elds diverge on charge

n
= n D =
V
0
d
e
jkz
This charge is traveling at the speed of light and giving
rise to a current
I =
n
wc = w
1

V
0
d
e
jkz
=
wV
0
d
e
jkz
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 11/22
Guide Currents
We should also be able to nd the guide current from
Ampres law
I =
_
C
b
H d = wH
x
=
wV
0
d
e
jkz
This matches our previous calculation. A third way to
calculate the current is to observe that J
s
= H
t
I =
_
w
0
J
s
zdx =
wV
0
d
e
jkz
The line characteristic impedance is the ratio of voltage
to current
Z
0
=
V
I
= V
0
d
wV
0
=
d
w
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 12/22
Guide Impedance and Phase Velocity
The guide impedance is thus only a function of the
geometry of the guide. Likewise, the phase velocity
v
p
=

=

k
=
1

The phase velocity is constant and independent of the

geometry.
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 13/22
TM Mode of Parallel Plate Guide
For TM modes, recall that h
z
= 0 but e
z
= 0
We begin by solving the reduced Helmholtz Eq. for e
z
_

2
x
2
+

2
y
2
+ k
2
c
_
e
z
(x, y) = 0
where k
2
c
= k
2

2
. As before, we take

x
= 0 for
simplicity
_

2
y
2
+ k
2
c
_
e
z
(x, y) = 0
The general solution of this simple equation is
e
z
(x, y) = Asin k
c
y + B cos k
c
y
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 14/22
TM Mode Boundary Conditions
Even though e
z
= 0 inside the guide, at the boundary of
the conductors, the tangential eld, and hence e
z
must
be zero.
This implies that B = 0 in the general solution. Also,
applying the boundary condition at y = d
e
z
(x, y = d) = 0 = Asin k
c
d
This is only true in general if k
c
= 0. But we have
already seen that this corresponds to a TEM wave. We
are now interested in TM waves so the argument of the
sine term must be a multiple of n for n = 1, 2, 3, . . .
k
c
d = n k
c
=
n
d
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 15/22
Axial Fields in Guide
The propagation constant is thus related to the
geometry of the guide (unlike the TEM case)
=
_
k
2
k
2
c
=
_
k
2

_
n
d
_
2
The axial elds are thus completely specied
e
z
(x, y) = A
n
sin
_
ny
d
_
E
z
(x, y, z) = A
n
sin
_
ny
d
_
e
jz
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 16/22
Transverse TM Fields
All the other elds are a function of E
z
H
x
=
j
k
2
c
E
z
y
H
y
=
j
k
2
c
E
z
x
E
x
=
j
k
2
c
E
z
x
E
y
=
j
k
2
c
E
z
y
So that H
y
= E
x
= 0 by inspection. The other
components are
H
x
=
j
k
c
A
n
cos
_
ny
d
_
e
jz
E
y
=
j
k
c
A
n
cos
_
ny
d
_
e
jz
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 17/22
Cutoff Frequency
As we have already noted, for wave propagation must
be real. Since =
_
k
2
k
2
c
, we require
k > k
c

> k
c
>
k
c

=
c

c
=
n
d

The guide acts like a high-pass lter for TM modes

where the lowest propagation frequency for a particular
mode n is given by
f
c
=
n
2d

=
nc
2d
=
n

g
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 18/22
TM Mode Velocity and Impedance
The TM mode wave impedance is given by
Z
TM
=
E
y
H
x
=

k =

k
This is a purely real number for propagation modes
f > f
c
and a purely imaginary impedance for cutoff
modes
The phase velocity is given by
v
p
=

=

k
_
1
_
k
c
k
_
2
=
c
_
1
_
k
c
k
_
2
> c
The phase velocity is faster than the speed of light!
Does that bother you?
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 19/22
Phase Velocity
Its important to remember that the phase velocity is a
relationship between the spatial and time components
of a wave in steady-state. It does not represent the
wave evolution!
Thus its quite possible for the phase to advance faster
than the time lag of light as long as this phase lag is a
result of a steady-state process (you must wait an
innite amount of time!)
The rate at which the wave evolves is given by the
group velocity
v
g
=
_
d
d
_
1
c
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 20/22
Power Flow
Lets compute the average power ow along the guide
for a TM mode. This is equal to the real part of the
complex Poynting vector integrated over the guide
P
0
=
1
2

_
w
0
_
d
0
E H

zdydx
z E H

= E
y
H

x
=
j
k
c
_
A
n
cos
ny
d
_
2
j
k
c
=

k
2
c
A
2
n
cos
2
ny
d
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 21/22
Power Flow (cont)
Integrating the cos
2
term produces a factor of 1/2
P
0
=
1
4
wd
k
2
c
|A
n
|
2
()
Therefore, as expected, if f > f
c
, the power ow is
non-zero but for cutoff modes, f < f
c
, the average
power ow is zero
University of California, Berkeley EECS 117 Lecture 26 p. 22/22