Terminations

Electrical terminations are electrical industry term used to describe the specific point at which a conductive device, such as wire or cable, ends or starts. The conductive device may or may not pass the carried electricity or signal onto another conductive device at this point. A common point of electrical termination is at a terminal block. A wire typically ends, or terminates, at the terminal block; but the electricity or signal may be passed onto the terminal connectors. Signal termination often requires the installation of a terminator at the beginning and end of a wire or cable to prevent an RF signal from being reflected back from each end, causing interference, or power loss. The terminator is usually placed at the end of a transmission line or daisy chain bus (such as in SCSI), and is designed to match the AC impedance of the cable and hence minimize signal reflections, and power losses. Less commonly, a terminator is also placed at the driving end of the wire or cable, if not already part of the signal-generating equipment.