Phenomena of Paired Echoes and Transmission Characteristics of the Pulse Signal in Dispersive Transmission Lines with Discontinuities

The performance of wideband radar system may be degraded by signal distortion occurring in anyplace of the transmission channel of the system. If the amplitude response is not flat or the signal delay is not constant in the transmission of the wideband signal, then signal distortion will occur, which can reduce the SNR and resolution. The available theory indicates that a small sinusoidal ripple variation in either amplitude-frequency or phase-frequency response of a linear system will cause signal distortion and the phenomena of paired echoes in the output signals of the time domain. In this paper, whether a dispersive transmission line with discontinuities will lead to the phenomena of paired echoes is discussed by means of finite difference time domain (FDTD) method and theoretical analysis. The results show that the technique of paired echoes is unsuited to analyze the influence of dispersive transmission line with discontinuities on time domain pulse signal. The method of Taylor series expansion shall be chosen as a more appropriate method. Meanwhile, simulations also show that a pulse signal transmitting in dispersive transmission lines with discontinuities including passive components such as filters and directional couplers will not lead to the phenomena of paired echoes.