Mismatched impedance

In electronics, impedance matching is the practice of designing the input impedance of an electrical load or the output impedance of its corresponding signal source to maximize the power transfer or minimize signal reflection from the load.

In the case of a complex source impedance Z_S and load impedance Z_L, maximum power transfer is obtained when

where the asterisk indicates the complex conjugate of the variable. Where Z_S represents the characteristic impedance of a transmission line, minimum reflection is obtained when

The concept of impedance matching found first applications in electrical engineering, but is relevant in other applications in which a form of energy, not necessarily electrical, is transferred between a source and a load. An alternative to impedance matching is impedance bridging, in which the load impedance is chosen to be much larger than the source impedance and maximizing voltage transfer, rather than power, is the goal.

Impedance is the opposition by a system to the flow of energy from a source. For constant signals, this impedance can also be constant. For varying signals, it usually changes with frequency. The energy involved can be electrical, mechanical, acoustic, magnetic, or thermal. The concept of electrical impedance is perhaps the most commonly known. Electrical impedance, like electrical resistance, is measured in ohms. In general, impedance has a complex value; this means that loads generally have a resistance component (symbol: R) which forms the real part of Z and a reactance component (symbol: X) which forms the imaginary part of Z.

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