Inherently balanced ATUs – part 3

Inherently balanced ATUs reported an experiment to measure the balance of a simulation of Cebik's “inherently balanced ATU”.

This article reports the same asymmetric load using the MFJ-949E internal voltage balun.

The third experiment

The test circuit is an MFJ-949E T match ATU jumpered to use the internal balun and resistors of 50Ω and 100Ω connected from those terminals to provide a slightly asymmetric load.

The voltage between ground and each of the output terminals was measured with a scope, and currents calculated.

Above are the measured output voltage waveforms at 14MHz.

Lets work out the current amplitudes. Above, V1 (yellow) is 5.9divpp, V2 (cyan) is 7.2divpp. I1=V1/50=5.9*0.2/50=23.6mApp. I2=V2/100=7.2*0.2/100=14.4mApp.

Expanding the timebase allows better measurement of the phase difference.

V2 lags by a half cycle less 8.25µs, so V2 phase is -180+8.25e-9*14e6*360=-180+42=-138°.

Lets calculate the common mode and differential component of current in each load resistor. We will use Python as it handles complex numbers.

>>> i1=0.0236
>>> i2=0.0144*(math.cos(-138/180*math.pi)+1j*math.sin(-138/180*math.pi))
>>> ic=(i1+i2)/2
>>> abs(2*ic)
0.016100289594275147
>>> id=(i1-i2)/2
>>> abs(id)
0.01781446515461856
>>> abs(2*ic)/abs(id)
0.903776198417105
>>> 20*math.log(abs(2*ic)/abs(id))/math.log(10)
-0.8787820061070818

So, the differential component of current is 17.8mApp, and the total common mode current is 16.1mApp, the total common mode current is 90% of the differential current or 0.9dB less than differential current.

By any standard, this is appalling balance, and demonstrates why voltage baluns are unsuited to the application.

The fact that the “inherently balanced” topology is only 1.8dB better that this voltage balun experiment speaks volumes for the failure of the “inherently balanced” topology.

The measurements reported here are for a specific scenario (components, frequency and load), and should not be simply extrapolated to other scenarios.

The calculated imbalance if you like applies to the specific test circuit, and cannot really be extended to use of this balun in an antenna system scenario.