The characteristic impedance is the voltage-to-current ratio of a single forward travelling wave on a uniform transmission line. For real and a real load resistance , the voltage-wave reflection coefficient is and the power accepted by the load is the incident power times .
A lossless uniform transmission line has a forward travelling-wave voltage and current related by with . Arbitrary independent DC voltage and current fields cannot simply acquire the same forward wave factor while retaining Maxwell consistency.
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Characteristic impedance (often represented as \( Z_0 \)) is a fundamental property of a transmission line or waveguide that defines the relationship between the voltage and current of a wave traveling along the line when it is at steady state. It is determined by the line's physical and electrical characteristics, including its inductance per unit length (\( L \)) and capacitance per unit length (\( C \)).