Hardware-Based Courseware for Teaching the Theory of Transmission Lines

Abstract

This article presents a hardware-based courseware package for use in teaching transmission line (Tline) theory. The hardware components include large inductors and capacitors that are used to slow down the speed of signals in the Tline and LEDs to allow the slowed-down signals to be observed by the human eye. This courseware can be used to augment the laboratory work in electromagnetic courses that teach Tline theory or for experimentation in microwave circuits, such as open/short stubs, branch line couplers, or Wilkinson dividers. A workshop was conducted to collect feedback on the proposed courseware from students after they had received instruction in Tline theory using both software-based and the proposed hardware-based courseware. In their feedback, the majority of students expressed more interest in the proposed hardware-based courseware than in the conventional software-based courseware.