In electronics, electrical termination is the practice of ending a transmission line with a device that matches the characteristic impedance of the line. Termination prevents signals from reflecting off the end of the transmission line. Reflections at the ends of unterminated transmission lines cause distortion, which can produce ambiguous digital signal levels and misoperation of digital systems. Reflections in analog signal systems cause such effects as video ghosting, or power loss in radio transmitter transmission lines.
SCSI terminator
Unibus terminator-and-bootstrap card from a PDP-11/34
In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmission must be taken into account. This applies especially to radio-frequency engineering because the short wavelengths mean that wave phenomena arise over very short distances. However, the theory of transmission lines was historically developed to explain phenomena on very long telegraph lines, especially submarine telegraph cables.
One of the most common types of transmission line, coaxial cable
A type of transmission line called a cage line, used for high power, low frequency applications. It functions similarly to a large coaxial cable. This example is the antenna feed line for a longwave radio transmitter in Poland, which operates at a frequency of 225 kHz and a power of 1200 kW.
A simple example of stepped transmission line consisting of three segments
Image: Polar Smith