The latest tool for serious EMI troubleshooting or debugging has become the real-time (RT) spectrum analyzer. Because manufacturing costs have been decreasing, some RT analyzers are becoming more affordable than ever. In this article, I’ll show you the advantages in using RT analysis for observing and troubleshooting unusual EMI. INTRODUCTION First, let’s review the … [Read more...]
Design for Compliance Essentials
INTRODUCTION While unrealistic to discuss all aspects of product design in a single article, I’ll try to describe the most common design issues I find in the hundreds of client products I’ve had a chance to work on. These issues generally include PC board design, cables, shielding, and filtering. More detailed information may be found in the Reference section below. As … [Read more...]
Basic EMI Concepts
Understanding EMC is all about two important concepts: (1) all currents flow in loops and (2) high frequency signals are propagated as electromagnetic waves in transmission lines and the field energy travels through the dielectric. The two concepts are related because they are intertwined together. Digital signals create the propagating field, which induces the convection … [Read more...]
Call For Authors/Bloggers – Editorial Submissions to Interference Technology Magazine
In over 45 years of publication, Interference Technology has earned a reputation for publishing only the highest quality technical articles that focus on practical and innovative technological developments in the EMC, EMI, and RFI fields. Product designers and EMC/compliance engineers have come to rely on Interference Technology as a source of quality, unbiased, non-commercial … [Read more...]
Book Review: Foundations of Electromagnetic Compatibility (Adamczyk)
OK, this is not a book for the faint-hearted. Bogdan Adamczyk is a professor of engineering and the founder of the EMC Center at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, MI. As such his recent book, Foundations of Electromagnetic Compatibility with Practical Applications (Wiley 2017, ISBN 978-1-119-12078-0) is crammed with derivations of basic electromagnetic … [Read more...]
Troubleshooting Radiated Immunity for Medical Products – Case Study
Introduction Companies making medical products have much more stringent requirements now that the new IEC 60601-1-2 (Edition 4) became effective June 17, 2017. One of the many changes included increased radiated immunity requirements in several specific wireless and communications bands (Table 1). Highlights of all the changes are included in Interference Technology’s free … [Read more...]
Review: TPI-1001-B RF Synthesizer
I recently had the chance to review a new RF signal generator from Trinity Power Inc. Their model TPI-1001-B is much more than just a mere synthesizer. This improved model also includes several modulations as well as scalar analysis (a "poor man's" network analyzer). The product (Figure 1) is available from RF design consultant, Robert Yarbrough … [Read more...]
Top Three EMI and Power Integrity Problems with On-Board DC-DC Converters and LDO Regulators
Co-authored by: Kenneth Wyatt and Steve Sandler INTRODUCTION Modern devices are continuing a long-term trend of squeezing more electronics into smaller packages, while also increasing system performance, data rates and operating efficiency. Higher efficiencies are often achieved by implementing faster silicon MOSFETs or even faster eGaN FETs while size is reduced by … [Read more...]
EMI Troubleshooting – Step-By-Step
In this article, I’ll describe the steps I usually take to troubleshoot the top four EMI issues, conducted emissions, radiated emissions, radiated immunity, and electrostatic discharge. Of these, the last three are the most prevalent issues, with radiated emissions typically being the number one failure. If your product or system (EUT) has adequate power and I/O port filtering, … [Read more...]
HDMI Cables and EMI
As more consumer and commercial products are introduced with High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cable connections, the resulting EMI issues related to HDMI cable emissions have continued to be problematic for product designers and EMC engineers. It is very common to have one, or more, added HDMI cables cause a product to fail the radiated emissions (RE) test. The … [Read more...]