Type of Electrical Circuit

Thread Starter

nick0210

Joined May 9, 2021
12
The attached PCB circuit has a red circle in it. What type of electrical circuit is it? What are the advantages of this type of PCB circuit over passive electrical components? What type of measurement instrument would you use to analyze this type of circuit?
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
hi N,
Welcome to AAC
It would help if you said where you got the unit from and is there any lettering on the unit.?
E
 

Thread Starter

nick0210

Joined May 9, 2021
12
Unfortunately I have no clue what the unit is. I am new to PCB circuits and any guidance to the question will be much helpful.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
What type of measurement instrument would you use to analyze this type of circuit?

A VNA is what you need to fully analyze this type of circuit but a spectrum analyzer with a tracking generator will give you a general idea of the device RF parameters.
https://www.edn.com/using-a-tracking-generator/

Normalized frequency response of a wire.


A quick and dirty Interdigital Filter response plot using that normalized wire calibration.
 
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nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,079
What is the use of capacitor made with traces instead of traditional capacitors?
The PCB filter element is more than just a capacitor. It's a geometric set of conductors (traces) and dielectrics (air/pcb substrate) that create a distributed electrical element containing both capacitance and inductance with resistance. It's a different way to see circuits, not as separate components but as electrical field modifiers over distributed electrical media.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed-element_circuit
Conventional circuits consist of individual components manufactured separately then connected together with a conducting medium. Distributed-element circuits are built by forming the medium itself into specific patterns. A major advantage of distributed-element circuits is that they can be produced cheaply as a printed circuit board for consumer products, such as satellite television. They are also made in coaxial and waveguide formats for applications such as radar, satellite communication, and microwave links.

A phenomenon commonly used in distributed-element circuits is that a length of transmission line can be made to behave as a resonator. Distributed-element components which do this include stubs, coupled lines, and cascaded lines. Circuits built from these components include filters, power dividers, directional couplers, and circulators.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed-element_model
In electrical engineering, the distributed-element model or transmission-line model of electrical circuits assumes that the attributes of the circuit (resistance, capacitance, and inductance) are distributed continuously throughout the material of the circuit. This is in contrast to the more common lumped-element model, which assumes that these values are lumped into electrical components that are joined by perfectly conducting wires. In the distributed-element model, each circuit element is infinitesimally small, and the wires connecting elements are not assumed to be perfect conductors; that is, they have impedance. Unlike the lumped-element model, it assumes nonuniform current along each branch and nonuniform voltage along each wire.
 
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Deleted member 115935

Joined Dec 31, 1969
0
Looking at all of the PCB you presented,
it looks like its covered in a bunch of similar circuits.
I'd say it was an RF board, if it was not for the presence of the through hole vias,
which does not rule out an RF board, but..

That is evidently not a real board, but the 3D output of the layout tool.
so how / where did you get the file from ?

This sort of design is quiet specialised, and the fact you have the data pack, but don't know where form or what from is "interesting"

is this an interview question ?
 

Thread Starter

nick0210

Joined May 9, 2021
12
Thank you team for all your insights. I am not sure if this is the platform i can share the attachment. So I had to delete it.

Thank you again for your knowledge.
 
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