Impedance Parameters - The Z-parameter Matrix

The Z-parameter Matrix

A Z-parameter matrix describes the behaviour of any linear electrical network that can be regarded as a black box with a number of ports. A port in this context is a pair of electrical terminals carrying equal and opposite currents into and out-of the network, and having a particular voltage between them. The Z-matrix gives no information about the behaviour of the network when the currents at any port are not balanced in this way (should this be possible), nor does it give any information about the voltage between terminals not belonging to the same port. Typically, it is intended that each external connection to the network is between the terminals of just one port, so that these limitations are appropriate.

For a generic multi-port network definition, it is assumed that each of the ports is allocated an integer n ranging from 1 to N, where N is the total number of ports. For port n, the associated Z-parameter definition is in terms of the port current and port voltage, and respectively.

For all ports the voltages may be defined in terms of the Z-parameter matrix and the currents by the following matrix equation:

where Z is an N × N matrix the elements of which can be indexed using conventional matrix notation. In general the elements of the Z-parameter matrix are complex numbers and functions of frequency. For a one-port network, the Z-matrix reduces to a single element, being the ordinary impedance measured between the two terminals.The Z-parameters are also known as the open circuit parameters as for their determination we need to open circuit one port and analyze the currents and voltages through other ports.