Electrical termination

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Electrical termination of a signal involves providing a terminator at the end of a wire or cable to prevent an RF signal from being reflected back from the end, causing interference. The terminator is placed at the end of a transmission line or daisy chain bus (such as in SCSI), designed to match impedance and hence minimize signal reflections.

1 Types of terminators
2 Other meaning

[edit] Types of terminators

[edit] Simple resistor

Often the terminator is a resistor. There are also active terminators which contain an electric circuit to perform the same basic function.

[edit] Dummy loads

Main article: Dummy load

Dummy loads are commonly used in HF to EHF frequency circuits.

[edit] 50 ohm

10BASE2 networks absolutely must have proper termination with a 50 ohm BNC terminator. If the bus network is not properly terminated, too much reflected power will occur causing all of the computers on the bus to lose network connectivity.

[edit] Other meaning

Electrical termination sometimes refers to manufacturing operations which connect wires together. This includes crimping, soldering, and related operations.