CNS-EE 1: ELECTRICITY/MAGNETISM/ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS/

SEMICONDUCTORS

1. Two point charge 10 cm apart produces a force of 1 x 10^-3 g. If the charges

are of equal magnitude, what is the charge in statcoulomb?
9.899 statcoulomb

2. Usually, the charge magnitude of a test-charge is equal to

q (the charge of electron)

3. Who was the first to introduce the concept of filed lines?

Michael Faraday

4. When a charge distribution is symmetric, often we use _____ to simplify

electric field calculations.
Gauss’ Law

5. Determine the magnitude of the electric field inside a sphere that encloses
a net charge of 2 C.
0 (zero)

6. What is the total electric flux through the surface of a closed sphere
enclosing a net charge of 2 C?
2.26 x 105 NC-1m2

7. The potential gradient at a particular point is numerically equal to _____

at the point.
Electric intensity

8. To get a higher value of capacitance in a capacitor the dielectric must be

constructed as
thin as possible

9. What is the reciprocal of capacitance?

Elastance

10. What is the unit of elastance?

Daraf

11. Law which shows that the force of attraction or repulsion between two
magnetic poles is inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between them.
Coulomb’s second law

12. When a magnetic substance is placed near a magnet it will become a magnet
also, this phenomenon is known as
magnetic induction
13. The capacity of a substance to become magnetized, and expressed as the ratio
between the magnetization produced in a substance to the magnetizing force
producing it.
Magnetic susceptibility

14. The voltage induced in a conductor is directly proportional to the rate of

change of flux being cut.
Faraday’s second law of electromagnetic induction

15. The voltage or emf induced when the magnetic field is moving or changing and
a conductor is stationary.
Statically induced emf

16. Reluctance is analogous to resistance in electrical circuits and has a unit

of At/Wb, its reciprocal is
Permeance

17. What magnetic materials that can be easily magnetized in both directions?
Soft magnetic materials

18. At what temperature does a magnetic material loses its ferromagnetic

properties?
Curie temperature

19. According to _____, the algebraic sum of the rises and drops of the mmf
around a closed loop of a manetic circuit is equal to zero.
Ampere’s circuital law

20. Gaussmeter measures flux density using what principle?

Hall effect

21. An electromagnetic switch consisting of a multiturn coil wound on a iron

core and an armature.
Electromechanical relay

22. What do you call of an electromagnet with its core in the form of a close
magnetic ring?
Toroid

23. An electrical device has a resistance of 10 and is supplied with a 5 ampere
constance current source. If the device is rated 100 Vdc, determine its
power consumed.
250 W

24. The power dissipated by a 10  load resistor with a current rating of 5

amperes is _____ if supplied with a 20 volt dc potential.
40 W

25. How do you connect cells to form a battery useful for high-power
applications?
 In series-parallel

26. In a mesh, the algebraic sum of all voltages and voltage drops is equal to
zero.
Kirchhoff’s second law

27. The sum of all currents entering a junction is equal to the sum of currents
leaving away from the junctions.
Kirchhoff’s first law

28. If a copper wire has an inferred absolute zero of -234.5 /Co, determine its
temperature coefficient of resistance at 25 /oC?
0.00385 /oC

29. A certain Thevenin equivalent circuit has parameters RTH = 10  and VTH =
20V. If this is converted to Norton’s equivalent circuit, RN and IN would be
10  and 2A

30. RN and IN of a Norton’s equivalent circuit are known to be 100  and 10A,
respectively. If a 400  load is connected, it will have a load current of
2 A

31. A chosen closed path of current flow in a network. In making this current
path there should be no node nor elements that are passed more than once.
Mesh

32. A set of circuit elements that forms a closed path in a network over which
signal can circulate.
Loop

33. In a network. What do we call a reference point chosen such that more
branches in a circuit met.
Node

34. A common connection between circuit elements or conductors from different

branches.
Junction

35. A secondary cell whose active positive plate consists of nickel hydroxide,
and active negative plate material is powered iron oxide mixed with cadmium.
Its typical out-put when fully charged is VO = 1.2V.
Edison cell

36. The maximum current a cell can deliver through a 0.01 ohm load during
testing.
Flash current

37. In batteries, the material used to insulate the positive plates from
negative plates are technically called
 Separator

38. Three resistors, R1 = 60 , R2 = 80  and R3 = 100  are connected in

delta. If the network is to be transformed into star what would be the value
of the resistor opposite R2?
25.0 

39. When can an ac-voltage, 𝑣 = 240 sin 120𝜋𝑡 reach its first peak?
240 ms

40. The time taken by an alternating voltage, 𝑣 = 100 sin 120𝜋𝑡 to reach 20V for
the first time
15.3 ms

41. What is the frequency of an alternating current, if it reaches 45 degrees

within 120ms?
60 Hz

42. What is the average voltage of an alternating voltage, 𝑣 = 100 sin 120𝜋𝑡?
70.71 V

43. What will be the current equation in a series RC network if supplied with
𝑣 = 𝑉𝑚𝑠 sin 120𝜋𝑡 source. The circuit has a power factor pf = 0.5? 𝒊 =
𝑰𝒎𝒂𝒙 𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝟏𝟐𝟎𝝅 + 𝟔𝟎)

44. The power factor (pf) of a series LC circuit is

0

45. What will happen when the power factor of a circuit is increased?
Active power increases

46. The apparent power of a series RC network is given to be 4000 W. If R = 6 ,

and XC = 8 , calculate the true power of the network.
2400 W

47. What is the significance of connecting loads in parallel?

It allows independent operations of loads

48. If a circuit has an admittance of Y = 0.2 + j0.6, the circuit is

Capacitive

49. The circuit admittance is Y = 0.2 – j0.6, the circuit is

Inductive

50. What will happen to a parallel ac-circuit if its line frequency is more than
the resonant frequency?
Becomes capacitive
51. If the line frequency of a parallel ac-circuit is less than the resonant
frequency, the circuit behaves as
Reactive

52. Absolutely, when can we say that the circuit is at resonance?

When the voltage and current are in-phase

53. Inventor of kaleidoscope, a Scottish physicist who says that for any
dielectric reflector, the relationship in which the refractive index is
equal to the tangent of the polarizing angle.
Brewster, Sir David

54. He invented the light-controlled valve which allowed lighthouses to operate

automatically and won him the 1912 Nobel prize in Physics, Who was this
Swedish industrial engineer?
Dalen, Nils

55. British chemist who invented the electrical primary cell.

Daniell, John Frederic

56. An English obstetrician who introduced ultrasound scanning. He pioneered its

use as a means of scanning the growing fetus without exposure to x-rays.
Donald, Ian

57. He investigated heat and light, discovered eddy currents induced in a copper
disc moving in a magnetic field, invented a polarizer, and made improvement
in the electric arc. Who was this French physicist who invented gyroscope?
Foucault, Jean Bernard Leon

58. The people responsible for the development of the practical transformers.
Lucien Gaulard & John Gibbs

59. A German scientist who helped prove the law of conservation of energy,
invented the opthalmoscope, constructed a generalized form of
electrodynamics, and foresaw the atomic structure of electricity.
Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von

60. Who was this US physicist who invented the cyclotron which pioneered the
production of artificial radioisotopes?
Lawrence, Ernest

61. A German physicist who investigated the photoelectric effect (light causes
metals to emit electrons) and cathode rays (the stream of electrodes emitted
from the cathode in a vacuum tube).
Lenard, Phillip

62. British physicist who studied the emission of electricity from hot bodies,
giving the name “thermionics” of the subject.
Richardson, Owen
63. An English physicist and chemist who pioneered research into the radioactive
decay of atoms and coined the term isotope.
Soddy, Frederick

64. A Japanese physicist who discovered the subatomic particles called the meson
in 1935.
Yukawa, Hideki

65. Elements that has four valence electrons are classified as

elemental semiconductor

66. The atomic number of an element represents the number of

protons or electrons

67. The type of crystal lattice in silicon and germanium.

Face centered cubic (fcc)

68. What is the total charge at the nucleus of silicon atom?

14e C

69. Which of the following element configuration that resembles an alkali metal?
Filled-shell-plus-one-electron

70. Energy required by a valence electron before it can move or transfer towards
the conduction band.
Energy gap

71. The energy gap between the valence band and conduction band of a
semiconductor is in the order of
one electron volt (1 ev)

72. Typical range of the resistivity of a semiconductor.

10 – 104 -cm

73. Chemical bond that is significant in metals.

Metallic bonding

74. What do you call a semiconductor that is doped with both donor and acceptor
impurities?
Compensated semiconductor

75. The resistance of a semiconductor is known as

bulk resistance

76. Silicon is widely used over germanium due to its several advantages, what do
you think is its most significant advantage?
Low leakage current

77. Current flow in a semiconductor that is due to the applied electric field.
Drift current
78. The movement of charge carriers in a semiconductor even without the
application of electric potential.
Diffusion current

79. Typically, how much energy is required for a valence electron to move to the
conduction band for a doped semiconductor?
0.05 eV

80. In energy band diagram of a doped semiconductor, the donor level

is near the conduction band

81. The acceptor level in a doped semiconductor

is near the valence band level

82. What is used in the study of the behavior of free electrons in a conducting
material?
Fermi-Dirac

83. In statistical mechanics, what distribution function is best used in

analyzing photons?
Bose-Einstein

84. In quantum statistics, the most suitable functions to be used in the

molecular analysis of gas is
Maxwell-Boltzmann

85. What do you call the boundary between the energy filled level and empty
level in a semiconductor material?
Fermi level

86. Which energy level that has free electrons?

Below the Fermi level

87. The potential required to remove a valence electron.

Ionization potential

88. A semiconductor that is classified as a metalloid or semimetal.

Germanium (Ge)

89. Which statement is not true?

Silicon has an oxidation state of negative four (-4)

90. Compound semiconductors are also known as

inter-metallic semiconductors

91. What semiconductor that is mostly used in devices requiring the emission
absorption of lights?
Compound semiconductor
92. For high-speed integrated circuit, which semiconductor material given is
best to be used?
Gallium arsenide

93. How much impurity concentration is needed for a sample of silicon to change
its electrical property from a poor conductor to a good conductor?
One part per million

94. The restriction of certain discrete energy levels in a semiconductor

material can be predicted generally by using what model?
Bohr model

95. At room temperature, in a perfect silicon crystal, the equilibrium

concentration of thermally generated electrons in the conduction band is
about
1.5 x 1010 per cubic cm.

96. What is the basis in operations of semiconductor photoconductors?

EHP optical generation

97. A silicon sample at equilibrium has a electron concentration of 1.5 x 1010

/cm3, and is doped with 1015 donors/cm3. Calculate the minority-carrier
concentrations.
2.25 x 105/cm3

98. Impurities with energy level or states close to the band edges are called
shallow states.

99. When an impurity used in doping produces a level or state that is close to
the center of the gap, it is called _____ impurity.
Deep state

100. The mobility of electrons and holes in a semiconductor are affected mainly
by what scattering mechanisms?
Impurity and lattice scattering

101. In semiconductors, what scattering mechanism that has a the smallest effect?
Crystal imperfection scattering

102. Calculate the total carrier mobility in a semiconductor if the impurity

scattering L = 0.3 m2/vs.
0.14 m2/vs

103. Semiconductor that has the highest heat conductivity and therefore used as a
heat sink.
Diamond

104. The semiconductor that is used in xerography.

Selenium (Se)
105. What semiconductor that is good for high-temperature applications?
Silicon carbide (SiC)

106. Among the given semiconductors below, which has the highest mobility?
Indium antimonide

107. For an electroluminescent of green and red lights, which semiconductor is

best?
Gallium phosphide

108. A semiconductor glass is known as

amorphous semiconductor

109. Typical range of power dissipation for a semiconductor be considered as “low

power” or “small signal”.
Less than 1 watt

110. Before an electron can participate in the conduction of electricity, it must

leave from the valence band and transfer to the conduction band.
Transferring to be conduction band involves energy acquisition by an
electron from external sources and this energy must be greater than the
energy gap of the material. Which semiconductor material has the highest
energy gap?
Zinc Sulfide (Zns)

111. Which of the following semiconductors has the smallest energy gap?
InSb

112. The ease with which a charge carrier (electron or hole) moves in a
semiconductor material is known as mobility. It is
InSb

113. In semiconductor materials, electrons have a higher value of mobility than

holes, but which semiconductor material has the slowest electron-mobility?
AlP

114. What is the average lattice constant of most semiconductors materials?

0.5 nm

115. What is formed when an n-type and p-type semiconductors are brought
together?
Pn junction
CNS-EE2: Electronics Circuits (Diodes & Transistors)

1. When the diode is supplied with a forward direction potential but with a magnitude
less than the threshold voltage of the diode, still it will not “turn-on” and will
only allow a very small amount of current to pass. This very small current is
known as
Ans. cut-off current

2. As the operating temperature of a reverse-biased diode is increased, its leakage of

reverse saturation current will
Ans. increase exponentially

3. Calculate the new threshold voltage of a germanium diode when it operates at 100
˚C.
Ans. 0.113 V

4. A silicon diode has a reverse saturation current of 50 nA at room temperature. If

the operating temperature is raised by 50 ˚C, what is now the reverse saturation
current?
Ans. 1.66 µA

5. In every increase of 10 ˚C in the operating temperature of a diode will cause its

reverse saturation current to
Ans. double

6. The resistance of the diode that is significant when operating with a small ac
signal.
Ans. dynamic resistance

7. When a diode is used in large ac voltages, the resistance that is to be considered

is
Ans. average resistance

8. At forward bias condition, what will happen to the diode resistance when the
applied voltage is increased?
Ans. will decrease

9. When a diode is reverse biased the depletion region widens, since it is in between
positively charge holes and negatively charge electrons, it will have an effect of
a capacitor, this capacitance is called what?
Ans. transition capacitance

10. In a semiconductor diode, the total capacitance, that is the capacitance

between terminals and electrodes, and the internal voltage variable capacitance of
the junction is called
Ans. diode capacitance

11. What capacitance is significant when the diode is forward biased?

Ans. diffusion capacitance

12. The time taken by the diode to operate in the reverse condition from forward
conduction.
Ans. reverse recovery time
13. In operating a diode at high-speed switching circuits, one of the most
important parameters to be considered is
Ans. reverse recovery time

14. The time required for forward voltage or current to reach a specified value
after switching the diode from its reverse-to-forward-biased state.
Ans. forward recovery time

15. A certain diode has a maximum power dissipation of 500 mW at room temperature
and a liner power derating factor of 5.0 mW/˚C. How much power the diode can
handle if operate4d at 50˚C?
Ans. 375 mW

16. Diode whose negative resistance depends on a specific form of quantum-

mechanical bond structure of the material.
Ans. Gunn diode

17. A diode that is especially processed so that its high current flow takes
place when the junction is reverse-biased. It is a variation of a tunnel diode.
Ans. backward diode

18. A silicon diode that exhibits a very high resistance in both directions up to
certain voltage, beyond which the unit switches to a low-resistance conducting
state. It can be viewed as two zener diodes connected back-to-back in series.
Ans. thyrector

19. A type of Reade diode that uses a heavily doped n-typed material as its drift
region.
Ans. IMPATT diode

20. A device containing more than one diode. An example is the full-wave bridge-
rectifier integrated circuit.
Ans. diode pack

21. Is the combination of the inductance of the leads and electrodes capacitance
of the junction and the resistance f the junction of a semiconductor diode
Ans. diode impedance

22. The appearance of RF current oscillations in a dc-biased slab of n-type

gallium arsenide in a 3.3 kV electric field.
Ans. Gunn effect

23. The device that is formed when an n-type and p-type semiconductors are
brought together.
Ans. junction diode

24. When the diode is supplied with a forward direction potential but with a
magnitude less than the threshold voltage of the diode, still it will not “turn-on”
and will only allow a very small amount of current of pass. This very small
current is known as
Ans. cut-off current

25. As the operating temperature of a reverse-biased diode is increased, its

leakage or reverse saturation current will
Ans. increase exponentially
26. Calculate the new threshold voltage of a germanium diode when it operates at
100 ˚C.
Ans. 0.113 V

27. A silicon diode has a reverse saturation current of 50 nA at room

temperature. If the operating temperature is raised by 50 ˚C, what is now the
reverse saturation current?
Ans. 1.66 µA

28. In every increase of 10 ˚C in the operating temperature of a diode will cause

its reverse saturation current to
Ans. double

29. The resistance of the diode that is significant when operating a small ac
signal.
Ans. dynamic resistance

30. When a diode is used in large ac voltages, the resistance that is to be

considered is
Ans. average resistance

31. At forward bias condition, what will happen to the diode resistance when the
applied voltage is increased?
Ans. will decrease

32. When a diode is reverse biased the depletion region widens, since it is in
between positively charge holes and negatively charge electrons, it will have an
effect of a capacitor, this capacitance is called what?
Ans. transition capacitance

33. In a semiconductor diode, the total capacitance, that is the capacitance

between terminals and electrodes, and the internal voltage variable capacitance of
the junction is called
Ans. diode capacitance

34. What capacitance is significant when the diode is forward biased?

Ans. diffusion capacitance

35. The time taken by the diode to operate in the reverse condition from forward
conduction.
Ans. reverse recovery time

36. In operating a diode at high-speed switching circuits, one of the most

important parameters to be considered is
Ans. reverse recovery time

37. The time required for forward voltage or current to reach a specified value
after switching the diode from its reverse-to-forward-biased state.
Ans. forward recovery time

38. A certain diode has a maximum power dissipation of 500 mW at room temperature
and a linear power derating factor of 5.0 mW/˚C. How much power the diode can
handle if operated at 50˚C?
Ans. 375 mW
39. Diode whose negative resistance depends on a specific form of quantum-
mechanical bond structure of the material.
Ans. Gunn diode

40. A diode that is especially processed so that its high current flow takes
place when the junction is reverse-biased. It is a variation of a tunnel diode/
Ans. backward diode

41. A silicon diode that exhibits a very high resistance in both directions up
to certain voltage, beyond which the unit switches to a low-resistance conducting
state. It can be viewed as two zener diodes connected back-to-back in series.
Ans. thyrector

42. A type of Read diode that uses a heavily doped n-type material as its drift
region.
Ans. IMPATT diode

43. A device containing more than one diode. An example is the full-wave bridge-
rectifier integrated circuit.
Ans. diode pack
44. It is the combination of the inductance of the leads and electrodes,
capacitance of the junction, and the resistance of the junction of a semiconductor
diode.
Ans. diode impedance

45. The appearance of RF current oscillations in a dc-biased slab of n-type

gallium arsenide in a 3.3 kV electric field.
Ans. Gunn effect

46. A transistor in which the base is diffused and the emitter is alloyed. The
collector is provided by the semiconductor substrate into which alloying and
diffusion are affected.
Ans. alloy-diffused transistor

47. In a semiconductor device, a p-n junction formed by alloying a suitable

material such as indium with the semiconductor.
Ans. alloy junction

48. A transistor in which one or both electrodes are created by diffusion.

Ans. diffused transistor

49. A diffused transistor in which the base, emitter, and collector electrodes
are exposed at the face of the wafer which is passivated (has an oxide layer grown
on it) to prevent leakage between surface electrodes.
Ans. diffused planar transistor

50. A bipolar transistor in which the base region has been diffused in the
semiconductor wafer.
Ans. diffused-base transistor

51. When n and p materials are both diffused into the semiconductor wafer to
provide emitter and base junctions, the transistor is called
Ans. diffused-emitter and base transistor
52. A mesa transistor whose base is an n-type layer diffused into a p-type wafer,
the p-type wafer serves as the collector. Its emitter is a small p-type area
diffused into or alloyed with the n-layer.
Ans. diffused-mesa transistor

53. A transistor in which the semiconductor wafer is etched down in steps so the
base and emitter regions appear as physical plateaus above the collector region.
Ans. mesa transistor

54. An alloy-junction bipolar RF transistor for which the impurity concentration

is graded from high on the emitter side of the base wafer to low on the collector
side. This creates an internal drift field which accelerates current carriers and
raises the upper frequency limit of the transistor.
Ans. drift-field transistor

55. A transistor in which a thin metal crystal is overlaid on another mesa

crystal.
Ans. double-diffused epitaxial mesa transistor

56. In diffused transistors, what do you call a figure expressing the ability of
material carriers to diffuse?
Ans. diffusion constant

57. A BJT that is made by first growing the emitter and collector regions as a
crystal into which the base region is later diffused while the crystal is being
pulled.
Ans. grown-diffused transistor

58. A junction transistor made by adding different impurities successively to a

crystal in its molten state, and then slicing the resulting npn formations from the
finished crystal.
Ans. grown-junction transistor

59. A transistor having tiny emitter and collector electrodes that are formed by
alloying a thin film of impurity material with a collector and emitter pits facing
each other on opposite surfaces of the semiconductor wafer
Ans. microalloy transistor (MAT)

60. A microalloy transistor having a uniform base region that is diffused into
the wafer before the emitter and collector electrodes are produced by alloying
Ans. microalloy-diffused transistor

61. The process of growing thin oxide film on the surface of a planar
semiconductor device to protect the exposed junction(s) from contamination and
shorts.
Ans. passivation

62. A planar epitaxial transistor which has been passivated to protect the
exposed junctions.
Ans. planar epitaxial passivated transistor

63. A transistor in which the emitter, base and collector elements terminate on
the same plane of the silicon wafer.
Ans. planar transistor
64. Usually, a pnp transistor is made by means of electrolysis and
electroplating. The emitter and collector are formed on opposite sides of a
semiconductor wafer by training two jets of electrolyte against its opposite
surfaces to etch and then electroplate the surfaces.
Ans. surface-barrier transistor

65. If the base-emitter junction is reversed biased and the base-collector

junction is forward biased, the transistor will be at what region of operation?
Ans. cut-off region

66. A transistor with β=100 is connected as common base, was found to have a
leakage current ICBO = 1 µA. If the said transistor is configured as common
emitter, what is the approximate value of its ICEO?
Ans. 100 µA

67. How is the collector cut-off or reverse saturation current ICBO related to
the emitter cut-off current IEBO?
Ans. ICBO ≈ IEBO

68. A transistor is said to be configured as common emitter if the emitter

terminal is
Ans. not used as an input nor output

69. Hybrid parameter that is usually neglected in most circuit analysis.

Ans. hr and ho

70. In most transistor input equivalent circuit it comprises of a resistor and a

Ans. voltage source

71. The graph of the product of collector-emitter voltage VCE and collector
current IC in the transistor output characteristic curve
Ans. maximum power curve

72. What will happen to the channel of a JFET as current flows to it?
Ans. skews

73. The voltage across the gate-source terminal of a FET that causes drain
current ID equals to zero.
Ans. pinch-off voltage

74. An early version of the field effect transistor in which limited control of
current carriers near the surface of a semiconductor bar or film was obtained by an
external field applied transversely.
Ans. fieldistor

75. What is the insulator used in most MOS-FET?

Ans. SiO2

76. An n-channel JFET has a drain-source saturation current IDSS = 10 mA and a

gate-source pinch-off voltage Vp = -4 V. If the applied reverse gate-source
voltage VGS = 2 V, calculate the drain current ID.
Ans. 2.5 mA
77. Base from Shockley’s equation of a JFET, what is the drain current when the
applied voltage VGS is exactly equal to the pinch-off voltage VP?
Ans. zero

78. In MOSFET, it is the foundation upon which the device will be constructed and
is formed from a silicon base
Ans. substrate

79. The amount of voltage needed at the gate-source terminal for an enhancement
type MOSFET so that a channel can be formed for the current to flow.
Ans. threshold voltage

80. To switch off the depletion type MOSFER, the channel should be depleted.
Depletion of the channel is done by applying enough voltage across the gate-source
terminal. What do you call this voltage?
Ans. pinch-off voltage

81. In an n-channel enhancement type MOSFET, the gate voltage should be ______
with respect to the source in order to produce or enhance a channel.
Ans. positive

82. To deplete a channel from a p-channel IGFET depletion type, the gate voltage
should be ______ with respect to the source terminal.
Ans. positive

83. A junction field effect transistor has a drain saturation current of 10 mA

and a pinch-off voltage of -4 V. Calculate the maximum transconductance.
Ans. 5.0 mS

84. An n-channel MOSFET depletion type has a drain saturation current IDSS = 10
mA and a pinch-off voltage of -4 V. Calculate the maximum transconductance of the
transistor.
Ans. 5.0 mS

85. Calculate the transconductance of a p-channel MOSFET enhancement type if the

gate-source voltage VGS = -8 V, threshold voltage VT = -4 and a constant k = -0.3
mA/V2.
Ans. 2.4 mS

86. What will happen to the conductivity of the channel of an enhancement type
MOSFER if the proper gate voltage is increased?
Ans. decreases

87. The cutoff frequency of a JFET is dependent on channel length by a factor of

Ans. 1/L2

88. An n-channel enhancement type MOSFET has a threshold voltage of VT = 2.5 V.

If the applied gate-source voltage VGS = 4 V, what is the approximate drain current
ID?
Ans. 0.675 mA

89. Which FET has a wide and short effective channel?

Ans. V-MOSFET
 90. The load line position is dependent of
Ans. the load resistance and the supply voltage

91. What will happen to the magnitude of the load line slope if the load
resistance is increased?
Ans. decreases

92. One method of stabilizing transistor circuits is to add an emitter

resistance. This resistance causes the load line slope to
Ans. become less negative

93. The power gain that is lost due to the emitter bias resistor can be recovered
by
Ans. shunting a by-pass capacitor

94. When a capacitor is involved at the output circuit of a transistor amplifier

it would mean
Ans. a different dc and ac load line

95. How does the emitter by-pass capacitor affect the dc load line?
Ans. it does not affect the dc load line

96. In analyzing the quiescent currents and voltages, on what load line do you
refer?
Ans. dc load line

97. The position of the Q-point along the load line is greatly affected by what
component?
Ans. base-resistor

98. What will happen to the position of the Q-point if the resistance base-
resistor is increased?
Ans. it moves downward

99. For a fixed-biased transistor circuit, what will happen to the Q-point when
the operation temperature rises?
Ans. it moves upward

100. For a battery operated transistor circuit, where is a good position of the Q-point
in order to minimize battery consumption?
Ans. near cutoff region

101. When troubleshooting a typical transistor amplifier in the active region, VCE is
usually _____ the supply voltage VCC.
Ans. about 25% to 75% of

102. Calculate the stability factor due to the variation of ICBO from 1 nA to 21 nA when
the temperature changes from room temperature to 100 ˚C. The change in collector-
current due to the change of ICBO was found to be 0.5 µA.
Ans. 25

103. The higher the stability factor means, a transistor circuit that is more sensitive
to temperature
Ans. variations, and therefore undesired
104. What stability factor that gives the highest value for a typical voltage-divider
bias transistor circuit?
Ans. S (ICO)

105. Calculate the change in the collector current due to the change in ICO for a
transistor circuit at 100 ˚C. ICO at room temperature is given to be 0.1 nA and
increases to 20 nA at 100 ˚C. The circuit has a stability factor S(ICO) = 25.
Ans. 0.5 µA

106. For most common-emitter configuration with different methods of biasing, what is
the maximum stability factor due to the change of the reverse saturation current ICO?
Ans. β + 1

107. What is the approximate output impedance of a common-emitter fixed-bias

configuration? The collector resistance RC is the only load resistance/
Ans. RC

108. A FET is biased with a voltage-divider configuration and is set at the active
region. Ideally, what is the gate current?
Ans. 0 mA

109. What type of FET that can be biased with both negative and positive gate-source
voltage VGS?
Ans. MOSFET depletion type

110. How do you classify an amplifier used to amplify either amplitude modulated (AM) or
frequency modulated (FM) signals?
Ans. class S

111. Which class of amplifiers that have the highest efficiency?

Ans. class D

112. Transistorized class C power amplifiers will usually have an efficiency of

Ans. 33%

113. For pulse-amplification, class D amplifier is mostly used. How efficient is a

class D amplifier?
Ans. its efficiency reaches over 90%

114. The Q-point of a class D amplifier can be set or positioned at what region in the
load line?
Ans. any of these

115. What do you call an amplifier that is biased to class C but modulates over the same
portion of the curve as if it were biased to class B?
Ans. class BC

116. Two class B amplifiers connected such that one amplifies the positive cycle and the
other amplifies the remaining negative cycle. Both output signals are then coupled
by a transformer to the load.
Ans. transformer-coupled push-pull amplifier

117. A push-pull amplifier that uses npn and pnp transistors to amplify the positive and
negative cycles respectively.
Ans. complementary-symmetry amplifier
118. A push-pull amplifier that uses either npn or pnp as its final stage. The circuit
configuration looks like the complementary-symmetry.
Ans. quasi-complementary push-pull amplifier

119. Distortion that is due to the inability of an amplifier to amplify equally well all
the frequencies present at the input signal/
Ans. amplitude distortion

120. Calculate the second harmonic distortion for an output signal having a fundamental
amplitude of 3 V and a second harmonic amplitude of 0.3 V.
Ans. 10 %

121. An amplifier has the following percent harmonic distortions: D2 = 10%, D3 = 5% and
D4 = 1%. What is the amplifier %THD?
Ans. 11.22%

122. T-equivalent circuit for transistor is considered as a _____ representation/

Ans. physical

123. What transistor model that uses a parameter value that is directly derived from the
operating condition?
Ans. re or dynamic model

124. The transistor model that is best suited for high frequency applications/
Ans. Giacolleto model

125. Another name of Giacolleto model for transistor modeling is

Ans. hybrid-pi model

126. What model is appropriate to use, if for a given transistor amplifier, beta (β) is
the only parameter available and we want to solve for its input and output
impedances?
Ans. dynamic model

127. When the transistor is operating at saturation region, dc-current is best

determined by using what model?
Ans. Ebers-Moll model

128. A two-stage transistor amplifier in which the output collector of the first stage
provides input to the emitter of the second stage. The final output is then taken
from the collector of the second or last stage.
Ans. cascode configuration

129. Famous transistor amplifier configuration designed to eliminate the so called

Miller effect.
Ans. cascode amplifier

130. Transistor arrangement that operates like a darlington but uses a combination of
pnp and npn transistors instead of both npn.
Ans. feedback pair
CNS–ST 1.1: INTRO TO COMMS, NOISE AND dB MEASURMENTS

1. The theory of radio waves was originated by:

Ans. Maxwell *

2. The first person who sent the first radio signal across the Atlantic ocean:
Ans. Marconi *

3. The transmission of radio waves was first done by:

Ans. Hertz *

4. When two or more signals share a common channel, it is called:

Ans. Multiplexing *

5. “Man-made” noise can come from:

Ans. equipment that sparks *

6. Thermal noise is generated in:

Ans. transistors and diodes, copper wire, and resistors *

7. Shot noise is generated in:

Ans. transistors and diodes *

8. The power density of “flicker” noise is:

Ans. greater at low frequencies *

9. So called “1/f” noise is also called:

Ans. pink noise *

10. “Pink” noise has:

Ans. equal power per octave *

11. Noise figure is a measure of:

Ans. how much noise an amplifier adds to a signal *

12. Resistor that generates the lowest thermal noise:

Ans. wire-wound *

13. Resistor with typical voltage range of

Ans. metal film*

14. Reference for noise temperature in ˚C:

Ans. 17 *

15. Standard test tone connected on audio equipment?

Ans. 1.0 kHz tone *

16. Reference standard test tone normally used is indicated in:

Ans. dBm *

17. Power lost in device, due by the path of energy flow.

Ans. insertion loss *

18. The noise generated with semiconductor devices.

Ans. shot noise *

19. Bandwidth is approximately _____ the highest baseband frequency.

Ans. 2 times *

20. Flicker noise in radio communications is also known as.

Ans. pink noise *

21. What determines the BW of a transmitted signal?

Ans. the highest frequency component of modulating signal *

22. What formula is used to calculate the overall noise performance of the
receiver or of multiple stages if RF amplification?
Ans. Frii’s formula *
23. If the bandwidth is doubled, considering all other parameters unchanged
except the normal thermal noise only. The S/N will be___
Ans. decreased by 3 dB *

24. Noise at the receiver is in terms of:

Ans. µV *

25. Reference tone level for dBa:

Ans. – 85 dBm *

26. Reference tone level for dBrn:

Ans. -90 dBm *

27. Reference tone level for F1A:

Ans. -85 dBm *

28. Reliable measurement for comparing amplifier noise characteristics:

Ans. noise factor *

NOISE PROBLEMS
29. A receiver has noise power bandwidth of 10 kHz. A resistor that matches the
receiver input impedance is connected across its antenna terminals. What is
the noise power contributed by that resistor in the receiver bandwidth if
the resistor has a temperature of 27 degrees Celsius?
Ans. 𝟒. 𝟏𝟒 𝒙 𝟏𝟎−𝟐𝟕 𝑾
𝑃𝑁 = 𝑘𝑇𝐵

30. A 300 ohm resistor is connected across the 300 ohm antenna input of the
television receiver. The bandwidth of the receiver is 6 MHz, and the
resistor is at room temperature. Find the noise power and noise voltage
applied to the receiver input.
Ans. 24.2 fW, 2.7 uV.
𝑃𝑁 = 𝑘𝑇𝐵 𝑉𝑁 = √4𝑘𝑇𝐵𝑅

31. A diode noise generator is required to produce a 10 uV of noise in a

receiver with an input impedance of 75 ohms, resistive, and a noise power
bandwidth of 200 kHz. What must be the current through the diode be?
Ans. 276 mA
𝐼𝑁 = √2𝑞𝐼𝑂 𝐵

32. Two noise-source resistors R1 and R2 connected in series at different

temperatures, 300˚K and 400˚K respectively. If R1 = 100Ω, R2 = 200, find:
A. the total noise voltage
B. the noise power at the load with RL = 300Ω, over a BW = 100 kHz.
Ans. A. 779 nV; B. 0.506 fW
𝑉2
𝑉𝑁𝑇 = √4𝑘𝐵(𝑇1 𝑅1 + 𝑇2 𝑅2 ) 𝑃= 𝑅

33. A receiver produces a noise power of 200mW with no signal. The output level
increases to 5W when a signal is applied. Calculate (S+N)/N as a power
ratio and in decibels.
Ans. 25, 14 dB
(𝑆 + 𝑁) 𝑃𝑂𝑈𝑇
=
𝑁 𝑃𝐼𝑁

34. The signal power at the input to an amplifier is 100 uW and the noise power
is 1 uW. At the output, the signal power is 1W and the noise power is 30
mW. What is the amplifier noise figure, as a ratio? In dB?
Ans. 3; 4.77dB
(𝑆⁄𝑁)𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡
𝑁𝐹 =
(𝑆⁄𝑁)𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡
35. The signal at the input of an amplifier has an S/N of 42 dB. If the
amplifier has a noise figure of 6 dB, what is the S/N at the output in
decibels?
Ans. 36 dB
𝑁𝐹(𝑑𝐵) = (𝑆⁄𝑁)𝐼𝑁𝑃𝑈𝑇(𝑑𝐵) − (𝑆⁄𝑁)𝑂𝑈𝑇𝑃𝑈𝑇(𝑑𝐵)

36. An amplifier has a noise figure of 2 dB. What is the equivalent noise
temperature?
Ans. 170 K
𝑇𝑒𝑞 = 290(𝑁𝐹 − 1)

37. A three-stage has stages with the following specifications: First stage with
power gain and noise figure of 10 and 2 respectively, 25 and 4 for the
second stage and 30 and 5 for the third stage. Find the noise temperature.
Ans. 382 K
𝑁𝐹2 − 1 𝑁𝐹3 − 1
𝑇𝑒𝑞 = 290(𝑁𝐹𝑇𝑂𝑇𝐴𝐿 − 1) 𝑁𝐹𝑇𝑂𝑇𝐴𝐿 = 𝑁𝐹1 + +
𝐴1 𝐴1 𝐴2

AMPLITUDE MODULATION
38. What is heterodyning?
Ans. Mixing two frequencies across a nonlinear impedance.

39. What waveform is the basis of all complex waveforms?

Ans. The sine wave

40. What is the instantaneous amplitude of a sine wave?

Ans. The value at any given point on the sine wave

41. What term describes how much of a cycle has been completed?
Ans. Phase or phase angle.

42. Define the heterodyne principle.

Ans. Process of combining two signal frequencies in a nonlinear device.

43. What is a nonlinear impedance?

Ans. An impedance in which the resulting current is not proportional to the
applied voltage.

44. What is spectrum analysis?

Ans. The display of electromagnetic energy that is arranged according to
wavelength or frequency.

45. What two conditions are necessary for heterodyning to take place?
Ans. At least two different frequencies applied to a nonlinear impedance.

46. Name two methods of oscillator keying.

Ans. Plate keying and Cathode keying

47. State the method used to increase the speed of keying in a CW transmitter.
Ans. Machine keying

48. Name a disadvantage of a single-stage CW transmitter.

Ans. Antenna –to-ground capacitance can cause the oscillator frequency to vary

49. What is the purpose of frequency-multiplier stages in a VHF transmitter?

Ans. To raise the low frequency of a stable oscillator to the vhf range.

50. What are the two major sections of a typical AM transmitter?

Ans. Rf and af units

51. When 100 kilohertz and 5 kilohertz are heterodyned, what frequencies are
present?
Ans. 100 kilohertz, 5 kilohertz, 95 kilohertz, and 105 kilohertz

52. What determines the bandwidth of an AM transmission?

Ans. The highest modulating frequency
53. What is percent of modulation?
Ans. The depth or degree of modulation

54. With a single modulating tone, what is the amplitude of frequencies at 100-
percent modulation?
Ans. One-half the amplitude of the carrier

55. What is the formula for percent of modulation?

Ans. %M = Em/Ec x 100%

56. What is high-level modulation?

Ans. Modulation produced in the plate circuit of the last radio stage of the
system.

57. For what class of operation is the final rf power amplifier of a plate-
modulator circuit based?
Ans. Class C

58. The modulator is required to be what kind of a circuit stage in a plate

modulator?
Ans. Power amplifier

59. How much must the fpa plate current vary to produce 100-percent modulation in
a plate modulator?
Ans. Between 0 and nearly two times its unmodulated value

60. The collector-injection modulator is similar to what type of tube modulator?

Ans. Plate modulator

61. When is a control-grid modulator used?

Ans. In cases when the use of a minimum of af modulator power is desired.

62. What type of modulator is the cathode modulator (low- or high-level)?

Ans. Low-level

63. What causes the change in collector current in an emitter-injection

modulator?
Ans. Gain is varied by changing the voltage on the emitter

ANGLE AND PULSE MODULATION

64. What are the two types of angle modulation?
Ans. Frequency and phase

65. Name the modulation system in which the frequency alternates between two
discrete values in response to the opening and closing of a key?
Ans. Frequency-shift keying

66. What is the primary advantage of an fsk transmission system?

Ans. Resistance to noise interference

67. What characteristic of a carrier wave is varied in frequency modulation?

Ans. Instantaneous frequency

68. How is the degree of modulation expressed in an fm system?

Ans. As the ratio of the frequency deviation to the maximum frequency
deviation allowable

69. What two values may be used to determine the bandwidth of an fm wave?
Ans. The number of significant sidebands and the modulation frequency.

70. How does the reactance-tube modulator impress intelligence onto an rf

carrier?
Ans. By changing the reactance of an oscillator circuit in consonance with the
modulating voltage.

71. What characteristic of a transistor is varied in a semiconductor-reactance

modulator?
Ans. Collector-to-emitter capacitance

72. What circuit section is required in the output of a multivibrator modulator

to eliminate unwanted output frequencies?
Ans. An LCR filter

73. What characteristic of a varactor is used in an fm modulator?

Ans. Capacitance

74. What type of modulation depends on the carrier-wave phase shift?

Ans. Phase

75. What components may be used to build a basic phase modulator?

Ans. A phase-shift network such a s a variable resistor and capacitor in series

76. Phase-shift keying is similar to what other two types of modulation?

Ans. Cw and frequency-shift keying

77. Overmodulating an rf carrier in amplitude modulation produces a waveform

which is similar to what modulated waveform?
Ans. Pulse modulation

78. What is prt?

Ans. Pulse-repetition time

79. What is nonpulse time?

Ans. Rest time

80. What is average power in a pulsed system?

Ans. Peak power during a pulse averaged over pulse time plus rest time

81. What action is necessary to impress intelligence on the pulse train in pulse
modulation?
Ans. Some characteristic of the pulses has to be varied

82. To insure the accuracy of a transmission, what is the minimum number of times
a modulation wave should be sampled in pulse modulation?
Ans. 2.5 times the highest modulation frequency

83. What, if any, noise susceptibility advantage exists for pulse-amplitude

modulation over analog-amplitude modulation?
Ans. Both are susceptible to noise and interference

84. What characteristics of a pulse can be changed in pulse-time modulation?

Ans. The time duration of the pulses or the time of occurrence of the pulses

85. Which edges of the pulse can be modulated in pulse-duration modulation?

Ans. Either, or both at the same time

86. What is the main disadvantage of pulse-position modulation?

Ans. It requires synchronization between the transmitter and receiver.

87. If a modulating wave is sampled 10 times per cycle with a 5-element binary
code, how many bits of information are required to transmit the signal?
Ans. 50

88. What is the primary advantage of pulse-modulation systems?

Ans. Low susceptibility to noise

DEMODULATION
89. What is the simplest form of cw detector?
Ans. A circuit that can detect the presence or absence of rf energy

90. What principle is used to help distinguish between two cw signals that are
close in frequency?
Ans. Heterodyning

91. How does heterodyning distinguish between cw signals?

Ans. By giving a different beat frequency for each signal
92. What simple, one-transistor detector circuit uses the heterodyne principle?
Ans. Regenerative detector

93. What three functions does the transistor in a regenerative detector serve?
Ans. Oscillator, mixer, and detector

94. What does the simplest diode detector use to reproduce the modulating
frequency?
Ans. The modulation envelope

95. What is the function of the diode in a series-diode detector?

Ans. Rectifies the rf pulses in the received signal.

96. Which junction of the transistor in the common-emitter detector detects the
modulation envelope?
Ans. Emitter-base junction

97. How is the output signal developed in the common-emitter detector?

Ans. By the collector current flow through R4

98. Which junction acts as the detector in a common-base detector?

Ans. Emitter-base junction

99. To what circuit arrangement is a common-base detector equivalent?

Ans. A diode detector followed by a stage of audio amplification.

100. What is the simplest form of fm detector?

Ans. Slope detector

101. What type of tank circuit is used in the Foster-Seeley discriminator?

Ans. A double-tuned tank circuit

102. What is the primary advantage of a ratio detector?

Ans. Suppresses amplitude noise without limiter stages.

103. What circuit functions does the tube in a gated-beam detector serve?
Ans. Limits, detects, and amplifies.

104. What condition must exist on both the limiter and quadrature grids for
current to flow in a gated-beam detector?
Ans. Both grids must be positively biased

105. Name two advantages of the gated-beam detector.

Ans. Extreme simplicity, few components, and ease of adjustment.

106. Where is the intelligence contained in a phase-modulated signal?

Ans. In the amount and rate of phase shift of the carrier wave.

107. How is a quadrature detector changed when used for phase demodulation?
Ans. The quadrature grid signal is excited by a reference from the transmitter.

108. In its simplest form, what functions must a radar detector be capable of
performing?
Ans. Detecting the presence of rf energy.
109. What characteristic of pulse does a peak detector sample?
Ans. Pulse amplitude or pulse duration

110. What is the time constant of the resistor and capacitor in a peak detector
for PAM?
Ans. At least 10 times the interpulse period

MODULATION/RECEIVERS/TRANSMITTERS
111. The power output of a single-sideband transmitter is normally expressed as
the _____ power.
Ans. peak envelope *

112. SSB modulation is classified as ______

Ans. AM *
113. Used to suppress carrier in single sideband transmitters.
Ans. balance modulator *

114. Carrier is said to be overmodulated if the positive peak rises to a value

_____ of the maximum unmodulated carrier.
Ans. more than twice *

115. Class of bias produce least harmonics

Ans. class A *

116. Devices used to make modulated envelope visible.

Ans. oscilloscope *

117. What will be the result in balanced modulation if not perfectly balanced.
Ans. the carrier is transmitted *

118. Advantage of series modulation

Ans. generate high power *

119. Filter attenuates signals, passes below and above that band.
Ans. band stop *

120. To provide 2 or more voice currents with same carrier.

Ans. ISM emission *

121. To raise the power levels of AM signals, the class of amplifier used is
_____.
Ans. class A *

122. Supposed a voice frequency of 400 Hz is transmitted on an AM radio station

operating on 590 kHz, the voice frequency 400 Hz is NOT the ______
frequency.
Ans. modulated *

123. What will normal AM receiver detect from an unmodulated RF AC wave?

Ans. nothing *

124. Splatter is the result of ________.

Ans. overmodulation *

125. What happens in standard AM transmission, no modulating signal is being

transmitted?
Ans. there are no sidebands *

126. B8E, form of modulation also known as ______.

Ans. Independent Sideband Transmission *

127. Colloquial term describes additional side frequencies produced by

overmodulation or distortion in AM.
Ans. splatter *

128. Shape trapezoidal pattern at 100% modulation.

Ans. triangle

129. What is the effect if the gain level being too high for signals entering the
modulator?
Ans. distortion and splatter *

130. The RF signal produce; carrier frequency (fc) minus modulating frequency
(fm).
Ans. LSB *

131. Mixer is also known as:

Ans. converter *

132. In filter design, the maximum SB suppression is:

Ans. 50 dB *
133. Transmitter power output in SSB operation is expressed in terms of
Ans. PEP *

134. For SSB transmitter, the average power is typically _____ of the peak
envelope power, with the typical human speech.
Ans. 1/4to 1/3 *

135. Modulation system most noise resistant

Ans. FM *

136. Pre-emphasis provides extra noise immunity by

Ans. converting phase modulation to FM *

137. The three major types of demodulators:

Ans. Foster-Seely, Quadrature, PLL *

138. In a frequency synthesizer, smallest amount which output frequency can be

changed?
Ans. resolution *

139. Internal capacitance, causes feedback produces same effect on…

Ans. Miller effect *

140. Small length of wire found in some RF equipment, connected only at one end
and use as a capacitance to ground.
Ans. gimmick *

141. Movement of signal from one frequency to another using mixer-oscillator

combination.
Ans. frequency translation *

142. Feature of modulating tone, FM deviation is proportional

Ans. amplitude *

143. Modulating 2 waves of the same frequency, but with _____ phase difference is
equivalent to modulating both amplitude and phase of the same carrier.
Ans. 90 degrees *

144. Frequency of unmodulated carrier of an FM.

Ans. rest frequency *

145. What determines stations that will be selected by a tuner?

Ans. resonant frequency of tuner *

146. Periodic waveforms consist of add harmonics.

Ans. square wave *

147. Major problem with VHF oscillator.

Ans. poor frequency stability *

148. What happens to a spectrum of repetitive pulse as the pulse width decrease?
Ans. more harmonics of the same phase *

149. Keyed AGC is AGC that

Ans. is used in TV receivers *

150. Main disadvantage of single-tube transmitter.

Ans. frequency instability *

151. What is reduced by rounding off squarewave emission.

Ans. bandwidth *

152. Gained by operating oscillator on some subharmonic of frequency.

Ans. frequency stability *

153. Multiplexing, oldest and simplest.

Ans. space division multiplexing *
154. Device display signal state of many lines simultaneously.
Ans. logic analyzer *

155. Most common IF carrier frequency.

Ans. 70 MHz *

156. Citizen Band (CB) Radio Service is a two-way voice communication device, it
uses frequency range from ______ MHz.
Ans. 26.965 to 27.405 *

157. What determines the rate of frequency swing for an FM broadcast transmitter?
Ans. modulation frequency *

158. In PLL demodulating an FM signal.

Ans. VCOout = FMin *

159. In PLL frequency modulator, fm

Ans. error signal *

160. Find the modulation index if a 10V carrier is amplitude-modulated by three

different frequencies with amplitudes of 1V, 2V, and 3V, respectively.
Ans. 0.374
𝐸𝑚
𝑚 𝑇 = √𝑚12 +𝑚22 +𝑚32 𝑚=
𝐸𝑐

161. Calculate the modulation index for a waveform with a maximum voltage of 150V
and minimum voltage of 70V.
Ans. 0.364 or 36.4%
𝐸𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝐸𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑚=
𝐸𝑚𝑎𝑥 + 𝐸𝑚𝑖𝑛

162. An AM broadcast transmitter has a carrier power output of 50 kW. What is the
total power would be produced with 80% modulation?
Ans. 66 kW
𝑚2
𝑃𝑇 = 𝑃𝐶 (1 + )
2

163. An AM broadcast transmitter has a carrier power output of 50 kW. What is the
power in one sideband with 80% modulation?
Ans. 8 kW
𝑚2
𝑃𝑆𝐵 = 𝑃
4 𝐶

164. An AM broadcast transmiiter has a carrier power output of 50 kW. What is the
total sideband power with 80% modulation?
Ans. 16 kW
𝑚2
𝑃𝑆𝐵 = 𝑃
2 𝐶

165. An AM broadcast transmitter radiates 66 kW power when 100% modulated. If

the carrier and one sideband is suppressed, how much power is save?
Ans. 55 kW
𝑃𝐶 + 𝑃𝑆𝐵 1 + 0.25
%𝑆𝑎𝑣𝑒 = 𝑥100% 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑚 = 100%; %𝑆𝑎𝑣𝑒 = 𝑥100 = 83.33%
𝑃𝑇 1.5

166. A transmitter with 10 kW carrier power transmit 12 kW when modulated with a

single sine wave. When modulated with another sinewave at 50% modulation,
calculate the total transmitted power.
Ans. 13.25 *
2
𝑚𝑒𝑓𝑓
𝑃𝑇 = 𝑃𝐶 (1 + )
2

167. The rms antenna current of a transmitter is 10 A when unmodulated, it

increases by 2 A when modulated. Calculate the modulation index.
Ans. 93.8% *

𝑚2
𝐼𝑇 = 𝐼𝐶 √1 +
2

168. In SSBSC system, if the peak envelope power (PEP) is 10 W, what will be the
value of the maximum instantaneous peak power?
Ans. 20 W *
𝑃𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 2 𝑥 𝑃𝐸𝑃

169. In SSBSC system, if the peak voltage is 25 volts and the load resistance is
50 ohms, what will be the value of the peak envelope power (PEP)?
Ans. 6.25 W *
2
(𝑉𝑃 ⁄√2) 𝑉𝑃2
𝑃𝐸𝑃 = =
𝑅𝐿 2𝑅𝐿

170. A carrier wave with an RMS voltage of 20 V and a frequency = 1.5 MHz, is
modulated by a sine wave with a frequency of 500 Hz and amplitude of 10 V
RMS. Determine the peak voltage of the carrier and of the lower side
frequency.
Ans. 28.3 V; 7.1 V *
𝑚
𝐸𝐶(𝑃𝐸𝐴𝐾) = √2 𝑥 𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝐸𝑚(𝑃𝐸𝐴𝐾) = 𝐸𝐶(𝑃𝐸𝐴𝐾)
2

171. An FM modulator has a modulator deviation constant of kf = 30 kHz/V and

operates at a carrier frequency of 175 MHz. Find the output frequency
instantaneous value of the modulating signal equal to -2V.
Ans. 174.94 MHz
𝑓𝑠𝑖𝑔 = 𝑓𝐶 + 𝑘𝑓 (𝑒𝑚 )

172. An FM modulator has a modulator deviation constant of kf = 30 kHz/V and

operates at a carrier frequency of 175 MHz is modulated by a 3V sine wave.
Calculate the deviation.
Ans. 127.2 kHz
𝛿 = 𝑘𝑓 𝐸𝑚

173. An FM broadcast transmitter operates at its maximum deviation of 75 kHz.

Find the modulation index for a sinusoidal modulation signal with a
frequency of 50 Hz.
Ans. 1500
𝛿
𝑚𝑓 =
𝑓𝑚

174. A phase modulator has a phase modulator sensitivity of kp = 2 radians per

volt. What RMS voltage of a sine wave would cause a peak phase deviation of
60 degrees?
Ans. 0.37 V
𝜑(𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑠)
𝑘𝑝 =
𝑒𝑚 (𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 − 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑠)

175. An FM communications transmitter has a maximum frequency deviation of 5 kHz

and a range of modulating frequencies from 300 Hz to 3 kHz. What is the
maximum phase shift that it produces?
Ans. 16.7 radians
𝛿
𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑓𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑠 = 𝑚𝑓 𝑚𝑓 =
𝑓𝑚

176. An FM communications transmitter has a maximum frequency deviation of 5 kHz

and a range of modulating frequencies from 300 Hz to 3 kHz. What is the
minimum phase shift that it produces?
Ans. 1.67 radians
177. A phase modulation system, has a modulation index mp = 1.5, what is maximum
phase shift?
Ans. 86 degrees *
𝑚𝑝 = 𝑚𝑓 𝜋𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛 = 180˚

178. A phase modulator has a sensitivity of kp = 3 radians per volt. How much
frequency deviation does it produces with a sine-wave input of 2V peak at a
frequency of 1 kHz?
Ans. 6 kHz
𝛿
𝑚𝑝 = 𝑘𝑝 𝐸𝑚 𝑚𝑝 = 𝑚𝑓 =
𝑓𝑚

179. An FM signal has a deviation of 3 kHz and a modulating frequency of 1 kHz.

Its total power is 5W, developed across a 50-ohm resistive load. The
carrier frequency is 160 MHz. Using Carson’s rule, calculate the bandwidth
of the signal.
Ans. 16 kHz
𝐵𝑊 = 2(𝛿𝑚𝑎𝑥 + 𝑓𝑚(max) )

180. An FM signal has a modulation index, mf = 3 and a modulating frequency of 2

kHz. Its total power is 5W, developed across a 50-ohm resistive load. The
carrier frequency is 160 MHz. Using Carson’s rule, calculate the bandwidth
of the signal.
Ans. 16 kHz
𝛿
𝐵𝑊 = 2(𝛿𝑚𝑎𝑥 + 𝑓𝑚(max) ) 𝑚𝑓 =
𝑓𝑚

181. An FM signal has a frequency deviation of 5 kHz and a modulating frequency

of 1 kHz. The signal to noise ratio at the input to the receiver detector
is 20 dB. Calculate the approximate signal-to-noise ratio at the detector
output.
Ans. 34 dB
𝐸𝑆 𝛿𝑆 𝐸𝑆 𝛿𝑁
( ) = 20𝑙𝑜𝑔 𝑚𝑓(𝑁) ≈ ( ) 𝑚𝑓(𝑁) =
𝐸𝑁 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝛿𝑁 𝐸𝑁 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑓𝑚

182. A crytal oscillator is accurate within 0.0005%. How far off frequency could
be at 27 MHz?
Ans. 135 Hz

183. A transmitter has a carrier power output of 10W at an efficiency of 70%.

How much power must be supplied by the modulating amplifier for 100%
modulation?
Ans. 7.14 W
𝑃𝑂𝑈𝑇
𝑃𝑎𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑜 = 0.5𝑃𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝜂=
𝑃𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒

184. A transmitter operates from a 12V supply, with a collector current of 2A.
The modulation transformer has a turns ratio of 4:1. What is the load
impedance seen by the audio amplifier?
Ans. 96 ohms
𝑁1 2 𝑉𝐶𝐶
𝑍𝑃 = 𝑍𝑎 ( ) 𝑍𝑎 =
𝑁2 𝐼𝐶

185. A collector modulated class C amplifier has a carrier output power Pc of

100W and an efficiency of 70%. Calculate the supply power and the transistor
power dissipation with 100% modulation.
Ans. Ps = 214W; Pd= 64W
𝑚2 𝑃𝑂
𝑃𝑂 = 𝑃𝐶 (1 + ) 𝜂= 𝑃𝑂 = 𝑃𝑆 − 𝑃𝐷
2 𝑃𝑆
186. An AM transmitter is required to produce 10W of carrier power when operating
from a 15V supply. What is the required load impedance as seen from the
collector?
Ans. 11.25 ohms
2
1 𝑉𝐶𝐶
𝑅𝐿 =
2 𝑃𝐶

187. A portable radio transmitter has to operate transmitter has to operate at

temperature from -5 to 35 degrees C. If its signal is derived from a
crystal oscillator with a temperature coefficient of +1 ppm per degree
Celsius and it transmits at exactly 146 MHz at 20 degrees C, find the
transmitting frequency at the upper temperature limit.
Ans. 146.00219 MHz
𝑓𝑇 = 𝑓𝑂 + 𝑘𝑓𝑂 (𝑇 − 𝑇𝑂 )

188. A phase-locked loop has a VCO with a free-running frequency of 12 MHz. As

the frequency of the reference input is gradually raised from zero, the loop
locks at 10 MHz and comes out again at 16 MHz. Find the capture range and
lock range.
Ans. Capture range = 4 MHz, Lock range = 8 MHz
𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 − 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 = 2(𝑓𝑂 − 𝑓𝐿𝑂𝐶𝐾 )

𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘 − 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 = 2(𝑓𝑂𝑈𝑇 − 𝑓𝑂 )

CNS-ST 1.2: TRANSMISSION LINES AND ANTENNAS

1. The minimum value that a characteristic impedance of an air dielectric

parallel-wire could have is
83 ohms.*

2. Velocity factor of coaxial cables vary from

0.6 to 0.8*

3. Typical value of the velocity factor of an open-wire transmission is

0.9*

4. When the load absorbs all the power transmitted, it means that the load
impedance is
equal to Zo of the line.*

5. When no power is applied to a transmission system, the VSWR is

equal to zero.*

6. The characteristic impedances commonly available are

75 ohms and 50 ohms.*

7. The 50-ohm RG-58 coaxial cable is used in

cheapernet or thin-wire Ethernet.*

8. The 50-ohm double-shielded RG-11 coaxial cable is used in

thicknet or thick-wire Ethernet.*

9. A flat conductor separated from a ground plane by an insulating dielectric

material
Microstrip.

10. A flat conductor sandwich between two ground planes.

Stripline

11. What connecting link is used to transfer energy from a radio transmitter to
its antenna located on the mast of a ship?
Transmission line.

12. What term is used for the end of a transmission line that is connected to a
transmitter?
Input end, generator end, transmitter end, sending end and source.

13. What term is used for the end of a transmission line that is connected to an
antenna?
Output end, receiving end, load end, and sink.

14. Name two of the three uses of a two-wire open line.

Power lines, rural telephone lines, and telegraph lines.

15. What are two primary disadvantages of a two-wire open line?

High radiation losses and noise pickup.

16. What type of transmission line is often used to connect a television set to
its antenna?
Twin-lead.

17. What is the primary advantage of the shielded pair?

The conductors are balanced to ground.

18. What the two types of coaxial lines in use today?

Air coaxial (rigid) and solid coaxial (flexible).

19. What is the chief advantage of the air coaxial line?

The ability to minimize radiation losses.

20. List the two common type of waveguides in use today.

Cylindrical and rectangular.
21. What are the three types of line losses associated with transmission lines?
Copper, dielectric and radiation.

22. Losses caused by skin effect and I 2 R (power) loss are classified as what
types of loss?
Copper loss.

23. What type of losses cause the dielectric material between the conductors to
be heated?
Dielectric loss.

24. What is the range of characteristic impedance of lines used in actual

practice?
Between 50 and 600 ohms.

25. Two types of waves are formed on a transmission line. What names are given
to these waves?
Incident waves from generator to load. Reflected waves from load to
generator.

26. On an open-ended transmission line, the voltage is always zero at what

distance from each end of the line?
One-fourth the distance from each end of the line.

27. A non-resonant line is a line that has no standing waves of current and
voltage on it and is considered to be flat. Why is this true?
The load impedance of such a line is equal to Zo.

28. At what point on an open-circuited rf line do voltage peaks occur?

At ½ wavelength from the end and at every ½ wavelength along the line.

29. What is the square of the voltage standing wave ratio called?
Power standing-wave ratio (pswr)

30. What does vswr measure?

The existence of voltage variations on a line.

31. Determine the characteristic impedance for an air dielectric two-wire

parallel transmission line with a D/r ratio of 12.22?
300 ohms.

D
Zo = 276log ( )
d

32. Determine the characteristic impedance for an RG-59A coaxial cable with the
following specifications: d=0.025 inches, D=0.15 inches, and dielectric
constant of 2.23
72 ohms
138 D
Zo = log( )
√Єr d

33. Determine the characteristic impedance for an RG-59A coaxial cable with the
following specifications: L=0.118uH/ft and C=21pF/ft
75 ohms.

L
Zo = √
C

34. For a given length of RG 8A/U coaxial cable with a distributed capacitance
of 96.6pF/m, a distributed inductance of 241.56 nH/m, and a relative
dielectric constant of 2.3, determine the velocity of propagation and the
velocity factor;
2.07x10^8m/s; 0.69
1 Vp
Vp = Vf =
√LC C
35. For a transmission line with an incident voltage of 5V and a reflected
voltage of 3V, determine the reflection coefficient and the SWR.
r=0.6, SWR=4
Er
Γ=
Ei
Ei + Er
SWR =
Ei − Er

36. A pulse is transmitted down a cable that has a velocity of propagation of

0.8c. The reflected signal is received 1us later. How far down the cable is
the impairment?
120m.

37. Using TDR, a transmission line impairment is located 3000m from the source.
For velocity of propagation of 0.9c, determine the time elapsed from the
beginning of the pulse to the reception of the echo.
22.22us

38. Determine the impedance of λ/4 line to match 600ohm feed to 75 ohm antenna.
212 ohm
Zo = √ZLZL

39. If a cable has a velocity factor of 0.8, what length of cable is required
for a 90 degree phase shift at 100 meters?
0.6 meters
L
θ = 360
λ

40. The scientist who profounded the theory of electromagnetic radiation James
Maxwell*

41. Antenna radiated power is ______ of the antenna current.

proportional to the square (I^2)

42. Antenna field strength is _____ to the antenna current.

directly proportional (I)

43. Antennas assuming having similar size, has largest gain.

Parabolic*

44. Antenna whose technical equivalent is λ/4 line is open circuited.

Dipole*

45. Marconi type of antenna is a grounded _____ vertical antenna.

λ/4*

46. Antenna used in mobile communications, mounted on vehicles.

Marconi*

47. Antenna used for radiating AM broadcast band.

λ/2 vertical antenna.*

48. Electrical length of a Marconi antenna needed for AM broadcasting can be

increased by
using series loading of capacitor.*

49. The SI unit of magnetic field intensity.

Ampere/meter*

50. The radio wavelength known as ______ falls within the medium frequency range
hectrometric waves*

51. Antenna utilizing the ground as part of its resonant circuit.

Marconi*

52. Antenna that is complete in itself and capable of self-oscillation.

Hertz*
53. Radiation resistance is the ratio of
radiated power to the square of current*

54. Example of Marconi type antenna.

Quarter wave vertical tower.*

55. The gain in the direction of one of the major lobes of the radiation
pattern.
Directivity gain*

56. Form of unwanted radiation working against the main beam caused by feeding a
parabolic reflector with an isotropic source.
Backlobe radiation*

57. Type of antenna capable of transmitting (receiving) a TEM wave polarized in

any direction.
Helical antenna*

58. A region within the influence of the induction field of an antenna.

Near field*

59. An example of parasitic array.

Yagi-uda*

60. Structure made of plastic-like composite material used to enclose the

complete antenna assembly for protection against the weather and to reduce
wind or snow loading.
Radome*

61. The minimum antenna actual height:

λ/4*

62. Marconi antenna current

maximum at the base*

63. Antenna that is λ/10 long is called

elementary doublet*

64. FM uses what type of polarization?

Horizontal polarization*

65. In antenna, the area where the signal strength is very low.
Null*

66. Which frequency band omni-horizontally polarized antenna used?

VHF and UHF*

67. Discone antenna polarization is

vertical*

68. What is the advantage of Top loading?

Improved radiation efficiency*

69. What is propagation?

Propagation means spreading out.

70. How is a wave defined as it applies to wave propagation?

A wave is a disturbance which moves through a medium.

71. What is wave motion?

A means of transferring energy from one place to another.

72. What are some examples of wave motion?

Sound waves, light waves, radio waves, heat waves, water waves.

73. What type of wave motion is represented by the motion of water?

Transverse waves.
74. What are some examples of transverse waves?
Radio waves, light waves, and heat waves.

75. What example of a longitudinal wave was given in the text?

A sound wave.

76. What are the three requirements for a wave to be propagated?

A source, medium and detector(receiver).

77. What is the law of reflection?

The law of reflection states: the angle of incidence is equal to the angle
of reflection.

78. When a wave is reflected from a surface, energy is transferred. When is the
transfer of energy greatest?
When the incident wave is nearly parallel with the surface.

79. When is the transfer of energy minimum?

When the incident wave is perpendicular to the surface. Also a dull (or
black surface) reflects very little regardless of the angle.

80. A refracted wave occurs when a wave passes from one medium into another
medium, what determines the angle of refraction?
The density of the two mediums, and the velocity of the waves.

81. What do we call the field that is created between two rods when a voltage is
applied to them?
ELECTRIC FIELD.

82. When current flows through a conductor, a field is created around the
conductor. What do we call this field?
MAGNETIC FIELD.

83. An induction field is created around a conductor when current flows through
it. What do we call the field that detaches itself from the conductor and
travels through space.
RADIATION FIELD.

84. What are two basic qualifications of antennas?

Half-wave(Hertz) and Quarter-wave (Marconi)

85. What are the three parts of a complete antenna system?

Coupling device, feeder, and antenna

86. What three factors determine the type size and shape of antenna?
Frequency of operation of the transmitter, amount of power to be radiated,
and general direction of the receiving set.

87. If a wave exactly the length of an antenna from one end to the other and
back during the period of 1 cycle, what is the length of the antenna?
One-half the wavelength.

88. What is the term used to identify the points of high-current and high
voltage on an antenna?
Current and voltage loops.

89. What is the term used to identify the points of minimum current and minimum
voltage on an antenna?
Current and voltage nodes.

90. The direction of what field is used to designate the polarization of a wave?
Electric Field.

91. If a wave’s electric lines of force rotate through 360 degrees with every
cycle of RF energy, what is the polarization of this wave?
Circular polarization.

92. What type of polarization should be used at medium and low frequencies?
Vertical polarization
93. What is an advantage of using horizontal polarization at high frequencies?
Less interference is experienced by man-made noise sources.

94. What type of polarization should be used if an antenna is mounted on a

moving vehicle at frequencies below 50 megahertz?
Vertical polarization

95. What is the radiation resistance of a half-wave antenna in free space?

73 ohms.

96. A radiating source that radiates energy stronger in one direction than
another is what type of radiator?
Anisotropic radiator

97. A radiating source that radiates energy equally in all directions is known
as what type of radiator?
Isotropic radiator

98. A flashlight is an example of what type of radiator?

Anisotropic radiator

99. What terms are often used to describe basic half-wave antennas?
Dipole, doublet and hertz.

100. If a basic halfwave antenna is mounted vertically, what type of radiation

pattern will be produced?
Non-directional

101. in which plane will the half-wave antenna be operating if it is mounted

horizontally?
Vertical plane.

102. Since the radiation pattern of a dipole is similar to that of a doublet,

what will happen to the pattern if the length of the doublet is increased?
The pattern would flatten.

103. What is the simplest method of feeding power to the half-wave antenna?
To connect one end through a capacitor to the final output stage of the
transmitter.

104. What is the radiation pattern of a quarter-wave antenna?

A circular radiation pattern in the horizontal plane, or same as a half-
wave.

105. Describe the physical arrangement of a ground screen?

It is composed of a series of conductors arranged in a radial pattern and
buried 1 to 2 feet below the ground.

106. What is the difference in the amount of impedance between a three-wire

dipole and a simple-center fed dipole?
Nine times the feed-point impedance.

107. Which has a wider frequency range, a simple dipole, or a folded dipole?
Folded dipole

108. What is the purpose of antenna stubs?

To produce desired phase relationship between connected elements

109. What is the primary difference between the major and minor lobes in a
radiation pattern?
Major lobes have the greatest amount of radiation.

110. What is the maximum number of elements used in a collinear array?

Four.

111. Why is the number of elements in a collinear array limited?

As more elements are added, an unbalanced condition in the system occurs
which impairs efficiency.
112. How can the frequency range of a collinear array be increased?
By increasing the lengths of the elements of the array.

113. How is directivity of a collinear array affected when the number of elements
is increased?
Directivity increases

114. What is the primary cause of broadside arrays losing efficiency when not
operating at their designed frequency?
Lower radiation resistance

115. When more that two elements are used in a broadside array, how are the
elements arranged?
Parallel and in the same plane.

116. As the spacing between elements in a broadside array increases, what is the
effect on the major lobes?
They sharpen

117. What are some disadvantages of the end-fire array?

Extremely low radiation resistance, confined to one frequency, and affected
by atmospheric conditions

118. Where does the major lobe in the end-fire array occur?
Along the major axis

119. To maintain the required balance of phase relationships and critical

feeding, how must the end-fire array be constructed?
Symmetrically

120. What two factors determine the directivity pattern of the parasitic array?
Length of the parasitic element (tuning) and spacing between the parasitic
and driven elements.

121. What two main advantages of a parasitic array can be obtained by combining a
reflector and a director with the driven element?
Increased gain and directivity.

122. The parasitic array can be rotated to receive or transmit in different

directions. What is the name given to such an antenna?
Rotary array.

123. What are the disadvantages of the parasitic array?

Their adjustment is critical and they do not operate over a wide frequency
range.

124. What is the advantage of adding parasitic elements to a Yagi array?

Increased gain.

125. The Yagi antenna is an example of what type of array?

Multielement parasitic array

126. To radiate power efficiently, a long-wire antenna must have what minimum
overall length?
One-half wavelength.

127. What is another name for the Beverage antenna?

Wave antenna

128. What is the polarity of the currents that feed the V antenna?
Opposite

129. What is the main disadvantage of the rhombic antenna?

It requires a large antenna site.

130. What is the primary reason for the development of the turnstile antenna?
For omnidirectional vhf communications
131. Microwave antennas and low-frequency antennas are similar in what ways?
Operating principles and electrical characteristics

132. What term is used to express the efficiency of an antenna?

Power gain or power ratio.

133. What term is used to express the measurement of the degree of mismatch
between a line and its load?
Standing-wave ratio (swr)

134. What type of antenna radiates in and receives energy from all directions at
once?
Omnidirectional

135. What is the term that is used to describe narrowness in the radiated beam of
an antenna?
Antenna directivity

136. What characteristic allows the same antenna to both transmit and receive?
Reciprocity.

137. What type of reflector is most often used in directive antennas?

Parabolic.

138. Microwaves can be reflected and focused in the same way as what other type
of waves?
Light waves.

139. How many major lobes are radiated by a parabolic reflector?

One

140. A horizontally truncated paraboloic antenna is used for what purpose?

Determine elevation

141. The beam from a horizontally positioned cylindrical paraboloid is narrow in

what plane?
Vertical.

142. What is a purpose of a collimating lens?

Forces the radial segments of a wavefront into parallel paths

143. What type of lens decelerates a portion of a spherical wavefront?

Delay lens

144. What is a set of antenna elements called?

Antenna array

145. What type of antenna has all elements connected to the same energy source?
Driven array

146. What determines the beam elevation angle of an antenna that is

electronically scanned in elevation?
Frequency or phase of radiated energy

147. What is the polarization of the energy radiated by a vertical slot?

Horizontal

148. Calculate the length of a half-wave dipole for an operating frequency of

20MHz.
142.5 468
𝐿𝑎𝑛𝑡(𝑚) = 𝑜𝑟 𝐿𝑎𝑛𝑡(𝑓𝑡) =
𝑓𝑀ℎ𝑧 𝑓𝑀ℎ𝑧

149. A dipole antenna has a radiation resistance of 67 ohms and a loss resistance
of 5 ohms measured at the feedpoint. Calculate the efficiency.
93%
Rradiation Pout
η =
Rtotal Pin
150. Determine the efficiency with the following: Pin=1000w, I=10A, R=8ohm.
80%

151. A dipole antenna has an efficiency of 85%. Calculate the gain in decibels.
1.43 dBi
G(dBi) = 10logG; G = Dη; where D = 2.14dBi or 1.638

152. The ERP of a transmitting station is 17W in a given direction. Express this
as an ERP in dBm so that it can be used with the path loss equation. Also
find EIRP.
ERP=42.3 dBm; EIRP=44.44dBm
𝐸𝑅𝑃
𝐸𝑅𝑃(𝑑𝑏𝑀) = 10𝑙𝑜𝑔
1𝑚𝑊
𝐸𝐼𝑅𝑃(𝑑𝐵𝑚) = 𝐸𝑅𝑃(𝑑𝐵𝑚) + 2.14𝑑𝐵

153. A helical antenna with eight turns is to be constructed for a frequency of

1.2GHz (a) calculate the optimum diameter and spacing for the antenna and
find the total length of the antenna. (b) calculate the antenna gain in dBi
(c) calculate the bandwidth.
(a)62.5mm; (b)14.8 dBi; (c)36.6 degrees
λ λ
Doptimum = spacing = Lant = NturnsS
π 4

154. A parabolic antenna has a diameter of 3 m, an efficiency of 60%, and

operates at a frequency of 4GHz. Calculate the gain and beamwidth. G=39.8
dBi; beamwidth=1.78 degrees.
πD 2 70λ
G = η( ) θ=
λ D

155. A power of 100W is supplied to an isotropic radiator. What is the power

density at a point 10km away?
79.6nW/square meter
Pt
Pd =
4πr 2

156. Find the electrical field strength for a signal power of 100W at a distance
of 10 km away.
5.48mV/m
√30Pt
Є=
r

157. A 5kW power, produces a field intensity of 50 uV/m at the receiver, what
field intensity will be received if the power is raised to 20 kW?
100uV/m

158. A transmitter has a power output of 150W at a carrier frequency of 325MHz.

It is connected to an antenna with a gain of 12 dBi. The receiving antenna
is 10km away and has a gain of 5 dBi. Calculate the power delivered to the
receiver, assuming free-space propagation. Assume also that there are no
losses or mismatches in the system.
404nW
PR = PT − Lfs Lfs = 32.44 + 20logdkm + 20logfMHz − GT(dBt) − GR(dBi)

159. A taxi company uses a central dispatcher, with an antenna at the top of a
15m tower, to communicate with taxi cabs. The taxi antennas are on the roofs
of the cars, approximately 1.5m above the ground. Calculate the maximum
communication distance: (a) between the dispatcher and a taxi (b) between
taxis
(a) 21km (b) 10.1km
d = √17hT + √17hR

160. In the right-hand rule for propagation, the thumb points in the direction of
the E field and the forefinger points in the direction of the H field. In
what direction does the middle finger point?
 Direction of wave propagation.

161. Which two composite fields (composed of E and H fields) are associated with
every antenna?
Induction field and radiation field

162. What composite field (composed of E and H fields) is found stored in the
antenna?
Induction field.

163. What composite field (composed of E and H fields) is propagated into free
space?
Radiation field

164. If a transmitting antenna is placed close to the ground, how should the
antenna be polarized to give the greatest signal strength?
Vertically polarized.

165. What is one of the major reasons for the fading of radio waves which have
been reflected from a surface?
Shifting in the phase relationships of the wave.

166. What are the three layers of the atmosphere?

Troposphere, stratosphere and ionosphere

167. Which layer of the atmosphere has relatively little effect on radio waves?
Stratosphere

168. What is the determining factor in classifying whether a radio wave is a

ground wave or a space wave?
Whether the component of the wave is travelling along the surface or over
the surface of the earth.

169. What is the best type of surface or terrain to use for radio wave
transmission?
Radio horizon is about 1/3 farther.

170. What is the primary difference between the radio horizon and the natural
horizon?
Seawater.

171. What three factors must be considered in the transmission of a surface wave
to reduce attenuation?
(a) electrical properties of the terrain (b) frequency (c) polarization of
the antenna

172. What causes ionization to occur in the ionosphere?

High energy ultraviolet waves from the sun.

173. How are the four layers of the ionosphere designated?

D,E,F1,F2 layers.

174. What is the height of the individual layers of the ionosphere?

D layer is 30-55 miles, E layer is 55 to 90 miles, F layers are 90 to 240
miles.

175. What factor determines whether a radio wave is reflected or refracted by the
ionosphere?
Thickness of ionized layer

176. There is a maximum frequency at which vertically transmitted radio waves can
be refracted back to earth. What is this maximum frequency called?
Critical Frequency.

177. What three main factors determine the amount of refraction in the
ionosphere?
(a) density of ionization of the layer (b) frequency (c) angle at which it
enters the layer
178. What is the skip zone of a radio wave?
A zone of silence between the ground wave and sky wave where there is no
reception.

179. Where does the greatest amount of ionospheric absorption occur in the
ionosphere?
Where ionization density is greatest

180. What is meant by the term multipath?

A term used to describe the multiple pattern a radio wave may follow.

181. When a wide band of frequencies is transmitted simultaneously, each

frequency will vary in the amount of fading. What is this variable fading
called?
Selective fading

182. What are two main sources of emi with which radio waves must compete?
Natural and man-made interference

183. Thunderstorms, snow storms, cosmic sources, the sun, etc., are a few
examples of emi sources. What type of emi comes from these sources?
Natural

184. Motors, switches, voltage-regulators, generators, etc., are a few examples

of emi sources, what type of emi comes from these sources?
Man-made

185. What are the two general types of variations in the ionosphere?
Regular and irregular variations.

186. What is the main difference between these two types of variations?
Regular variations can be predicted but irregular variations are
Unpredictable

187. What are the four main classes of regular variation which affect the extent
of ionization in the ionosphere?
Daily, seasonal, 11-year, and 27-days variation.

188. What are the three more common types of irregular variations in the
ionosphere?
Sporadic E, sudden disturbances, and ionospheric storms.

189. How do raindrops affect radio waves?

They can cause attenuation by scattering.

190. How does fog affect radio waves at frequencies above 2 Gigahertz?
It can cause attenuation by absorption

191. How is the term “temperature inversion” used when referring to radio waves?
It is a condition where layers of warm air are formed above layers of cool
air.

192. How does temperature inversion affect radio transmission?

It can cause vhf and uhf transmission to be propagated far beyond normal
line-of-sight distances.

193. In what layer of the atmosphere does virtually all weather phenomena occur?
Troposphere

194. Which radio frequency bands use the tropospheric scattering principle for
propagation of radio waves?
VHF and above.
CNS-ST 2.2: SATELLITES AND FIBER OPTICS

SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS

1. What are the two types of communications satellite

Passive and active

2. A typical satellite communications operational link consists of a satellite

and what other two components?
Earth terminals

3. What areas of the earth are not normally covered by satellites?

Extreme polar regions

4. Satellite orientation in space is important for what two reasons?

To allow maximum solar exposure to the sun and satellite antenna exposure to
earth terminals

5. What types of antennas are generally used at earth terminals?

Large, high-gain parabolic antennas

6. Why do earth terminals require highly sensitive receivers?

To overcome satellite transmitter low power and permit extraction of the
desired information from the received signal

7. Why is satellite acquisition and tracking important?

To ensure earth terminal antennas are always pointed towards the satellite

8. What are the two limitations to an active satellite communications system?

Satellite down-link transmitter and up-link receiver sensitivity

9. If the line-of-sight distance for an optical beam is 12 km, what would is

be, approximately, for a microwave beam?
16 km

10. The power in the downlink signal from a typical communications satellite is
in the range of _____ per transponder.
10 to 250 watts

11. The power level for an earth station to transmit to a satellite is in the
order of:
10^3 watts

12. Ku-band antennas can be _____ than C-band antennas.

Smaller

13. A geosynchronous orbit is about _____ km above the earth.

35,780

14. A Global Positioning System (GPS) or NAVSTAR is

MEO

15. GPS or NAVSTAR height is

9500 miles

16. An antenna’s angular direction between east and west?

Azimuth

17. An antenna’s vertical angle with respect to the earth’s surface.

Elevation

18. An antenna’s angle by which it is offset from the earth’s axis

Declination

19. In geostationary satellites, “station-keeping” means:

Adjusting the orbits

20. A reduction of TWT power for linearity is called:

 Backoff

21. The frequency bands used by Ku-band satellites are:

12 GHz and 14 GHz

22. Satellite operating at 27 – 30 GHz

Ka-band

23. The law that states that a satellite will orbit a primary body following an
elliptical path.
1st Law of Kepler

24. Kepler’s 2nd law is known as

Law of areas

25. Kepler’s 3rd law is also known as

Harmonic law

26. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite orbits around the earth at a height of
370 miles

27. Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite orbits around the earth at a height
approximately _____.
6000 miles to 12,000 miles

28. Geosynchronous satellites are high-altitude earth-orbit satellites with

heights about _____.
22,300 miles or 36,000 km

29. Iridium is a LEOSAT that has a height of approximately

480 miles

30. MEO frequency band is

1.2 -1.66 GHz

31. All satellites rotate around the earth in an orbit that forms a plane that
passes through the center of gravity of earth called
Geocenter

32. The point on the surface of the earth directly below the satellite
Subsatellite point (SSP)

33. The minimum acceptance angle of elevation

5 degrees

34. The spatial separation of a satellite is between _____.

3 degrees to 6 degrees

35. Antenna used with a rotating satellite whose main beam is continuously
adjusted so that it will illuminate a given area on the earth’s surface
Despun

36. Satellite’s radiation pattern that typically target up to 20% of the Earth’s
surface
Hemispherical beams

37. The radiation pattern that has a satellite’s antenna beamwidth of 17 degrees
and are capable of covering approximately 42% of the earth’s surface
Earth or global beams

38. Geostats has an earth coverage of approximately

42.5%

39. LNA stands for:

Low-noise amplifier

40. LNA in satellite transponder system commonly used

Tunnel
SATELLITE

41. Find the velocity of a satellite in a circular orbit (a) 500 km above the
earth’s surface (b) 36,000 km above the earth’s surface (approximately the
height of geosynchronous satellite).
(a) 7.6 km/s (b) 3.07 km/s

4 × 1011
𝑣(𝑚/𝑠) = √
𝑑(𝑘𝑚) + 6400

42. Calculate the angle of declination for an antenna using a polar mount at
latitude of 45 degrees.
6.81 degrees
𝑅 sin 𝐿
𝜃 = arctan ( )
𝐻 + 𝑅(1 − cos 𝐿)

43. Calculate the length of the path to a geosynchronous satellite from an earth
station where the angle of elevation is 30 degrees.
39 x 10^3 km
𝑑 = √(𝑟 + ℎ)2 − (𝑟 cos 𝜃)2 − 𝑟 sin 𝜃

44. A satellite transmitter operates at a 4 GHz with a transmitter power of 7W

and an antenna gain of 40 dBi. The receiver has antenna gain of 30 dBi and
the path length is 40,000 km. Calculate the signal strength at the receiver.
-88 dBm
𝑃𝑅
(𝑑𝐵) = 𝐺𝑇(𝑑𝐵𝑖) + 𝐺𝑅(𝑑𝐵𝑖) − (32.44 + 20 log 𝑑(𝑘𝑚) + 20 log 𝑓(𝑀𝐻𝑧) )
𝑃𝑇

45. A receiving antenna with a gain of 40 dBi looks at at a sky with a noise
temperature of 15K. The loss between the antenna and the LNA input, due to
the feedhorn, is 0.4 dB, and the LNA has a noise temperature of 40K.
Calculate G/T.
20.6 dB
𝐺/𝑇(𝑑𝐵) = 𝐺𝑅(𝑑𝐵𝑖) − 10 log(𝑇𝑎 + 𝑇𝑒𝑞 )

(𝐿 − 1)290 + 𝑇𝑠𝑘𝑦
𝑇𝑎 =
𝐿

46. A receiver has a noise figure of 1.5 dB. Find its equivalent noise
temperature.
119K
𝑇𝑒𝑞 = 290(𝑁𝐹(𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜) − 1)

47. The receiving installation whose G/T was found to be 20.6 dB is used as a
ground terminal to receive a signal from a satellite at a distance of 38,000
km. the satellite has transmitter power of 50 watts and an antenna gain of
30 dBi. Assume losses between the satellite transmitter and its antenna is
negligible. The frequency is 12 GHz. Calculate the carrier-to-noise ratio at
the receiver, for a bandwidth of 1 MHz. 30.6 dB

𝐶 𝐺
(𝑑𝐵) = 𝐸𝐼𝑅𝑃(𝑑𝐵) − 𝐹𝑆𝐿(𝑑𝐵) − 𝐿𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑐 + − 𝑘(𝑑𝐵𝑊) − 10 log 𝐵𝑊
𝑁 𝑇
𝑘(𝑑𝐵𝑊) = −228.6 𝑑𝐵𝑊

48. If a satellite has a total transmitter power (Pt) of 1000 W, determine the
energy per bit (Eb) for a transmission rate of 50 Mbps.
-47 dBW/bps or -47 dbJ
𝑃𝑡
𝐸𝑏 = 10 log
𝑓𝑏
49. For an equivalent noise bandwidth of 10 MHz and a total noise power of
0.00276 pW, determine the noise density and equivalent noise temperature.
276 x 10^-23 W/Hz or -205.6 dBW/Hz

50. A typical TVRO installation for use with C-band satellite (downlink at
approximately 4 GHz) has a diameter of about 3 m and an efficiency of about
55%. Calculate its gain and beamwidth.
G = 39 dB, beamwidth = 1.75 degrees
𝜋𝐷 2 70𝜆
𝐺 = 𝜂( ) 𝜃=
𝜆 𝐷

51. For an earth station transmitter with an antenna output power of 40dB (10000
W), a back-off loss of 3dB, a total branching and feeder loss of 3dB, and a
transmitter antenna gain of 40dB, determine the EIRP
74 dBW
𝐸𝐼𝑅𝑃 = 𝑃𝑡 − 𝐿𝑏𝑜 − 𝐿𝑏𝑓 + 𝐴𝑡
FIBER OPTIC CONCEPTS

52. Fiber optics is coined by

NS Kapany

53. What are three means of producing light?

Mechanical, electrical and chemical

54. What is the smallest unit of radiant energy?

A photon

55. What unit is used to measure the different wavelengths of light?

Angstrom unit
56. What are the three primary colors of light?
Red, green and blue

57. What are the three secondary colors of light?

Magenta, yellow and cyan

58. A substance that transmits light but through which an object cannot be seen
clearly is known as what kind of substance?
Translucent

59. What type of wave motion is represented by motion of water?

Transverse-wave motion

60. A substance that transmits almost all of the light waves falling upon it is
known as what type of substance?
Transparent

61. A substance that is unable to transmit any light waves is known as what type
of substance?
Opaque

62. What is the law of reflection

The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence is equal to the
angle of reflection

63. When a wave is reflected from a surface, energy is reflected. When is the
reflection of energy greatest?
When the wave is nearly parallel to the reflecting surface

64. When is the reflection energy the least?

When the wave is perpendicular to the reflecting surface

65. Light waves obey what law?

The law of reflection

66. A light wave enters a sheet of glass at a perfect right angle to the
surface. Is the majority of the wave reflected, refracted, transmitted or
absorbed?
Transmitted
67. When light strikes a white piece of paper, the light is reflected in all
directions. What do you call this scattering of light
Diffusion

68. What is the basic optical-material property relevant to optical fiber light
transmission?
The index of refraction

69. What name is given to the angle where total internal reflection occurs?
Critical angle of incidence

70. List the three parts of optical fiber

Core, cladding and coating or buffer

71. Light transmission along an optical fiber is described by two theories.

Which theory is used to approximate light acceptance and guiding properties
of an optical fiber?
The ray theory

72. Light rays that passes thru the longitudinal axis at the fiber core are
called
meridional rays

73. Meridional rays are classified as either bound or unbound rays. Bound rays
propagate through the fiber according to what property?
Total internal reflection

74. What mechanisms in fiber waveguides weaken and distort the optical signals?
Scattering, absorption and dispersion

75. How can loss be reduced during construction (or fabrication) of optical
fibers?
By removing the impurities from the optical fiber

76. What fiber property does numerical aperture (NA) measure?

NA measures the light-gathering ability of the optical fiber

77. Skew rays and meridional rays define different acceptance angles. Which
acceptance angle is larger, the skew ray angle or the meridional ray angle?
Skew ray angle

78. The mode theory uses electromagnetic wave behavior to describe the
propagation of light along the fiber. What is the set of guided
electromagnetic waves called?
Modes of fiber

79. Modes that are bound at one wavelength may not exist at longer wavelengths.
What is the wavelength at which a mode ceases to be bound is called?
Cutoff wavelength

80. What type of optical fiber operates below cutoff wavelength?

Multimode fiber

81. The fiber’s normalized frequency (V) determines how many modes a fiber can
support. As the value of V increases, will the number of modes supported by
the fiber increase or decrease?
Increase

82. The number of modes propagated in a multimode fiber depends on the core size
and numerical aperture (NA). If the core size and the NA decrease, will the
number of modes propagated increase of decrease?
Decrease

83. What is the main loss mechanism between ultraviolet and infrared absorption
regions?
Rayleigh scattering
84. Name the two types of intramodal, or chromatic, dispersion. Material
dispersion and waveguide dispersion

85. Which dispersion mechanism (material or waveguide) is a function of the sine

of the fiber’s core relative to the waveguide operation?
Waveguide dispersion

86. Modes of light pulse that enter the fiber at one time exit the fiber at
different times. This condition causes the light pulse to spread. What is
this condition called?
Modal dispersion

87. The reflective index of a fiber core is uniform and undergoes an abrupt
change at the core-cladding boundary. Is this fiber a step-index or graded-
index fiber?
Step-index

88. What happens to the fundamental mode as the operating wavelength becomes
longer than the single mode cutoff wavelength?
The fundamental mode becomes increasingly lossy

89. Give two reasons why optical fiber manufacturers depart from the traditional
circular core cladding, low-loss glass fiber design?
To increase performance and reduce cost

90. Why do cable manufactures introduce a controlled twist to the stacked

ribbons during the cabling process?
To minimize fiber stress when the cable is bent

91. Which fiber optic component (splice, connector, or coupler) makes a

permanent connection in a distributed system?
Splice

92. What are the main causes of coupling loss?

Poor fiber end preparation and poor fiber alignment

93. When the axes of two connected fibers are no longer in parallel, the two
connected fibers are in what kind of misalignment?
Angular misalignment

94. Which are more sensitive to alignment errors, single mode or multimode
fibers?
Single mode

95. Quality fiber-end preparation is essential for proper system operation. What
property must an optical fiber-end face have to ensure proper fiber
connection?
Be flat, smooth, and perpendicular to the fiber axis

96. What is the basic fiber cleaving technique for preparing optical fibers for
coupling?
Score-and-break

97. Fiber splicing is divided into two broad categories that describe the
techniques used for fiber splicing. What are they?
Mechanical and fusion splicing

98. What fiber property directly affects splice-loss in fusion splicing?

The angles and quality of the two fiber-end faces

99. What is a short discharge of electric current that prepares the fiber ends
for fusion is called?
Prefusion

100. Do small core distortions formed by arc fusion’s self-alignment mechanism

have more of an affect on light propagating through multimode or single mode
fibers?
Single mode fibers
101. Which is the more critical parameter in maintaining total insertion loss
below the required level, fiber alignment of fiber mismatch?
Fiber alignment

102. Fiber optic connectors can reduce system performance by increasing what two
types of noise?
Modal and reflection

103. Which type of fiber optic connector (butt-jointed or expanded beam) brings
the prepared ends of two optical fibers into contact?
Butt-jointed connectors

104. Is coupling loss from fiber separation and lateral misalignment more
critical in expanded beam or butt-jointed connectors?
Butt-jointed connectors

105. Is coupling loss from angular misalignment more critical in expanded beam or
butt-jointed connectors?
Expanded beam connectors

106. Which type of optical splitter (Y-coupler or T-coupler) splits only a small
amount of power from the input fiber to one of the output fibers?
T-coupler

107. What two properties of the launch condition may affect multimode fiber
attenuation measurements?
Launch spot size and angular distribution

108. Does underfilling a multimode optical fiber excite mainly high-order of low-
order modes?
Low-order modes

109. A mode filter is a device that attenuates specific modes propagating in the
core of an optical fiber. What mode propagating along single mode fibers do
mode filters eliminate?
Second-order mode

110. What are the two most common types of mode filters?
Free-form loop and mandrel wrap

111. The cutoff wavelength of matched-clad and depressed-clad single mode fibers
varies according to the fiber’s radius of curvature and length. The cutoff
wavelength of which single mode fiber type is more sensitive to length?
Depressed-clad

112. What determines the range of wavelengths over which meaningful data is
obtained for calculating the chromatic dispersion?
The wavelength range of the optical source(s) used

113. Near-filed power distributions describe the emitted power per unit are in
the near-field region. Describe the near-field region.
The near-field region is the region close to the fiber0end face

114. How is the core diameter defined?

The core diameter is define as the diameter at which the near-filed
intensity is 2.5 percent of the maximum intensity

115. Far-field power distributions describe the emitted power per unit area as a
function of angle theta in the far-field region. Describe the far-field
region.
The far-field region is the region far from the fiber-end face

116. Will fiber coupling loss generally increase of decrease if the mode field
diameter of a single mode fiber is decreased?
Increase

117. In multimode fibers, how do fiber joints increase fiber attenuation

following the joint?
By disturbing the fiber’s mode power distribution (MPD)
118. Reflectance is given as what ration?
The ratio of reflected optical power to incident optical power

119. When is an OTDR recommended for conducting field measurements on installed

optical fibers or links?
When installed optical fiber cables or links are 50 meters or more in length

120. An OTDR measure the fraction of light that is reflected back from the fiber
or link under test. What causes light to be reflected back into the OTDR?
Rayleigh scattering and Fresnel reflection

121. What is a temporary or permanent local deviation of the OTDR signal in the
upward of downward direction called?
A point defect

122. Why is dead-zone fiber placed between the test fiber and OTDR when
conducting attenuation measurements?
To reduce the effect of the initial reflection at the OTDR
123. The amount of backscattered optical power at each point depends on what two
properties?
Forward optical power and backscatter capture coefficient

OPTICAL SOURCES AND FIBER OPTIC TRANSMITTERS

124. Semiconductor LEDs emit incoherent light. Define incoherent light.

Light waves that lack a fixed-phase relationship

125. What are the two most common semiconductor materials used in electronic and
electro-optic devices?
Silicon and gallium arsenide

126. Describe the stimulated emission.

A photon initially produced by a spontaneous emission in the active region
interacts with the laser material to produce additional photons

127. What are the three basic LED types?

Surface-emitting LEDs (SLEDs) edge-emitting LEDs (ELEDs) and super
luminescent diodes (SLDs)

128. Which types of LEDs are the preferred optical sources for short-distance,
low-data-rate fiber optic systems?
SLEDs and ELEDs

129. What are facets?

Cut or polished surfaces at each end of the narrow active region of an ELED

130. What is the lowest current at which stimulated emission exceeds spontaneous
emission in a semiconductor laser called?
Threshold current

131. Which type of optical source usually lacks reflective facets and in some
cases is designed to suppress reflections back into the active region?
LED

132. How does the source drive circuit intensity modulate the source?
By varying the current through the source

133. What is a prebias?

A current applied in the laser off state just less than the threshold
current

134. What are the two types of output interfaces for fiber optic transmitters?
Optical connectors and optical fiber pigtails

135. What type of source is typically used in low-data-rate digital applications?

LED

136. Why would a laser diode be used in a low-data-rate digital application?

 When extremely high transmitter output powers are required

137. What type of source is generally used in high-data-rate digital

applications?
Laser diode

OPTICAL DETECTORS AND FIBE OPTIC RECEIVERS

138. Which performance parameter is the minimum amount of optical power required
to achieve a specific bit-error rate (BER) in digital systems or a given
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in analog systems?
Receiver sensitivity

139. List the two principal optical detectors used in fiber optic systems.
The semiconductor positive-intrinsic-negative (PIN) photodiode and avalanche
photodiode (APD)

140. What are the four most common materials used in semiconductor detector
fabrication?
Silicon, gallium arsenide, germanium and indium phosphide

141. What is a photocurrent?

The current produced when photons are incident on the detector active area

142. Define responsivity.

The ratio of the optical detector’s output photocurrent in amperes to the
incident optical power in watts

143. How are PIN photodiodes usually biased?

Reverse-biased

144. What is the dark current?

The leakage current that continues to flow through a photodetector when
there is no incident light

145. Will dark current increase or decrease as the temperature of the photodiode
increases?
Increase

146. Should the capacitance of the photodetector be kept small or large to

prevent the RC time constant from limiting the response time?
Small

147. Trade-offs between competing effects are necessary for high speed response.
Which competing effect (fast transit time, low capacitance, or high quantum
efficiency) requires a thin active area?
Fast Transit time

148. Why is detector saturation not generally a problem in fiber optic

communications systems?
Because fiber optic communications systems operate at low optical power
levels

149. How can the gain of an APD be increased?

By increasing the reverse-bias voltage

150. List the key operational parameters used to define receiver performance.
Receiver sensitivity, bandwidth, and dynamic range

151. List the main types of receiver noise.

Thermal noise, dark current noise, and quantum noise

152. What is the main factor that determines receiver sensitivity?

Noise

153. For a reduction in thermal noise, should the value of the detector’s load
resistor be increased or decreased?
Increased
154. What are two types of noise that manifest themselves as shot noise?
Dark current and quantum noise

155. What are the two basic types of preamplifiers used in fiber optic receivers?
The high-impedance amplifier and the transimpedance amplifier

156. Which preamplifier design (high-impedance or transimpedance) provides

improvements in bandwidth and greater dynamic range with some degradation in
sensitivity from an increase in noise?
Transimpedance

157. For what types of applications are APDs generally used?

For high-data-rate applications and for low- or moderate-data-rate
applications where receivers with extremely low sensitivities are required

158. What type of modulation do most analog fiber optic communications systems
use?
Intensity modulation

159. What two analyses are performed to determine if a link design is viable?
Power budget and risetime budget

160. Optical fibers or cables should never be bent at a radius of curvature

smaller than a certain value. Identify this radius of curvature.
Minimum bend radius

161. In fiber optics, the main disadvantage of plastic over glass fiber is
high attenuation

162. The wavelength of visible spectrum is within the range of

0.4 to 0.8 microns

163. Range of frequency used for fiber optic (FO) system is

100 – 1000 THz

164. The bending of light rays due to change in velocity as a result of traveling
from one medium to the other.
Refraction

165. What is the infrared range used for fiber optics in Angstrom?
7,000 to 12,000

166. In fiber optic system, the core of PCs fiber is

Glass

167. What is the primary specification of a fiber cable usually expressed as the
loss in dB/km?
Attenuation

168. What is the most widely used light generator in fiber optic system?
Injection laser diode

169. A more widely used and most sensitive photosensor is _____.

Avalanche photodiode

170. Attenuation null is fiber optic occurs at what wavelength?

1.3 microns

171. 1 angstrom is equal to how many microns?

0.0001 microns

172. 1 angstrom is equal to how many nanometers?

10 ns

173. A measure of quality of a fiber optic system.

Maximum distance between repeaters

174. The average maximum distance between repeaters in a fiber optic system.
10 - 30 km
175. Fiber optics performance is usually indicated by
product of bit rate and distance

176. The external incident angle for which light will propagate in the fiber is
known as _____.
Acceptance angle

177. In fiber optics, the dominant loss mechanisms in silica fiber are _____.
Absorption and Rayleigh Scattering Loss

178. Rayleigh Scattering Loss at 8020 nm has a typical value of _____.

2.5 dB

179. Loss due to valence electron:

UV absorption

180. Laser used in fiber optic communications.

Semiconductor laser

181. What is the maximum data rate for fiber optics?

10 Gbps

182. What is the typical bandwidth of the single-mode step-index fiber?

50 to 100 GHz/km

183. What is the achievable rate of single-mode step-index fiber as used in

digital communication?
2 Gigabytes

184. What is the typical margin of safety in dB used in preparing the power
budget for fiber-optic system?
5 – 10 dB

FIBER OPTIC PROBLEMS

185. A fiber has an index of refraction of 1.6 for the core and 1.4 for the
cladding. Calculate: (a) critical angle (b) angle of refraction for angle of
incidence of 30 degrees (c) angle of refraction for angle of incidence of 70
degrees.
(a) 61 degrees (b) 34.8 degrees (c) 70 degrees
𝑛
𝜃 = arcsin 𝑛2 𝑛2 sin 𝜃2 = 𝑛1 sin 𝜃1
1

186. Calculae the numerical aperture and the maximum angle of acceptance for the
fiber that has an index of refraction of 1.6 for the core and 1.4 for the
cladding.
N.A. = 0.775 / 50.8 degrees
𝑁𝐴 = √𝑛2 − 𝑛1 𝜃𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = sin−1 𝑁𝐴

187. A single-mode fiber has a numerical aperture of 0.15. what is the maximum
core diameter it could have for use with infrared light with a wavelength of
820 nm?
4.2 um
0.383𝜆
𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑥 =
𝑁𝐴

188. An optical fiber has a bandwidth-distance product of 500 MHz-km. if a

bandwidth of 85 MHz is required for a particular mode of transmission, what
is the maximum distance that can be used between repeaters?
5.88 km
𝐵𝑊 𝑥 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒

189. The fiber has zero dispersion at a wavelength of 1310 nm and has a zero-
dispersion slope of 0.05 ps(nm2-km). calculate the total dispersion of 50 km
of this fiber when it is used with a source having a linewidth of 2 nm at a
wavelength of 1550 nm.
949 ps
 𝑆𝑂 𝜆4𝑂
𝐷𝐶 (𝜆) = [𝜆 − 3 ] 𝑝𝑠/(𝑛𝑚 − 𝑘𝑚)
4 𝜆

190. Find the bandwidth and bandwidth distance product for the fiber with total
dispersion of 949 ps and a total length of 50km.
B = 526.8 MHz, Bandwidth-Distance product = 26.3 GHz-km
𝑙
𝐵=
2Δ𝑡

191. Find the energy in electronvolts, in one photon at a wavelength of 1 um.

E = 1.24 eV
𝐸 = ℎ𝑓

192. A typical photodiode has an input optical power of 500 nW. Calculate the
diode current.
150 nA
𝐼 = 𝑃𝑖𝑛 × 𝑅 ; 𝑅𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 = 0.33 𝐴/𝑊

193. A fiber optic link extends for 40 km. The laser diode emitter has an output
power of 1.5 mW, and the receiver requires a signal strength of -25 dBm for
a satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio. The fiber is available in lengths of
2.5 km and can be spliced with a loss of 0.25 dB per slice. The fiber has a
loss of 0.3 dB/km. The total of all the connector losses at the two ends is
4 dB. Calculate the available system margin.
7.01 dB

194. A 45 km length of fiber must not lengthen pulses by more than 100 ns. Find
the maximum permissible value for the pulse spreading contrast.
2.22 ns/km

195. A fiber is rated as having a bandwidth-distance product of 500 MHz-km. Find

its dispersion in ns/km, and the rise time of a pulse in a 5 km length of
this cable.
5 ns