Aerospace electronics are expected to run for long lifetimes with high uptime, and many systems are designed around Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) targets exceeding 10,000 hours of continuous operation. When looking at simple electrical ratings or descriptions, many components will look acceptable, but they can fail because the components were not structurally … [Read more...]
The 40-Week Problem: Why Medical Device EMC Failures Cost the Most When They’re Caught Late
The fix is rarely the expensive part. The timing is. The Fix That Costs 40x More in Week 40 Than in Week 4 Here's a pattern I've watched play out on program after program. A device sails through internal bench testing. Engineering is confident. The unit goes to the test lab for formal IEC 60601-1-2 immunity testing, and at 3 V/m radiated RF susceptibility, … [Read more...]
The Role of an EMC Engineer in Product Development
Coming out of college, whether it’s electrical, mechanical, software, or any other engineering discipline, a lot of young engineers picture themselves as Tony Stark building an Iron Man suit or as Mark Watney getting stuck on Mars and engineering his way back home to Earth as their future career. What many young engineers don’t quite understand is that engineers … [Read more...]
EMC & eMobility
CONTENTS Introduction Basics e-Motors Battery Testing Summary Note: This article is an abridged version of the white paper “EMC and eMobility” published in 2024 by MVG, available at www.mvg-world.com. The full paper provides expanded technical detail and includes additional coverage of EV charging, which is only briefly referenced here for … [Read more...]
How to Build a Reliable TDR from S-Parameters to Reduce EMI Worries
When Two TDRs Don’t Agree As modern high-speed designs push into multi-gigabit and higher data rates, EMI and EMC engineers rely on multiple signal integrity (SI) metrics to evaluate interconnect performance. Among these, time-domain reflectometry (TDR) remains one of the most direct methods for identifying controlled impedance and … [Read more...]
What’s New in MIL-STD-461H
The long-awaited revision to MIL-STD-461H was released on April 17, 2026. This revision formally supersedes MIL-STD-461G, issued on December 11, 2015. However, anyone involved in the MIL-STD-461 compliance arena understands that adoption through the procurement cycle will take time. There is no reason to discard those copies of revisions A through G anytime soon. Although I … [Read more...]
Can CubeSat ESD Testing with Sound Packaging Engineering Protocols Before Launch Ensure Successful Deployment? — Part 2
Read Part 1 of this CubeSats series here In 2016 and 2018, Bob Vermillion gave a series of groundbreaking presentations on “CubeSats Require ESD Handling Protocols for Launch & Space Survivability” to enthusiastic audiences of university graduate students, aerospace engineers, NASA civil servants and academic researchers at the NASA-Auburn Academy of Aerospace … [Read more...]
Evaluating Patch Antenna Printed Circuit Boards Utilizing RF Absorber and S11 Measurements
Introduction Patch antenna printed circuit boards (PCBs) are among the most common pieces of radio frequency (RF) hardware that exist in modern systems today. Wireless communications, automotive radar, and aerospace/defense systems rely heavily on these structures for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic energy. Since these structures are … [Read more...]
Affordable RF Test Setups for IoT Designers
Introduction The number of connected devices keeps growing every year. Millions of devices exchange data wirelessly to make our lives easier. Wireless connectivity simplifies installation by removing cables, but it uses the electromagnetic spectrum, which is becoming more and more crowded. User demands have shifted connectivity from being a … [Read more...]
Why Maxwell’s Plane Wave Solution Matters in RF
Transmission lines, antennas, and RF measurement systems all rely on a single electromagnetic model - the plane wave solution to Maxwell’s equations. While often treated as a theoretical result, this solution governs how energy propagates, reflects, radiates, and ultimately contributes to interference in real RF hardware. There are several, heavy … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 29
- Next Page »
