Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra was notable for his skill on the field and was equally notable for many of his quotes. “Yogi-isms” were things he often said that were both amusing and insightful. Referring to a popular restaurant, he said, “Nobody goes there anymore; it’s too crowded.” Sounds like a contradiction, but it’s easy to follow his meaning. Customers chose not to … [Read more...]
Drag Races, a Cashless Society, and the Threat of EMP
About a month ago, my 12-year-old son and I made his first-ever trip to the NHRA Drag Races near our home. It’s something that I always did with my dad, and I have looked forward to taking him ever since he was born. It’s a typical father-and-son day, wrought with loud, fast cars, terrible food, and the occasional waft of nitromethane fuel in the air. The drive is about … [Read more...]
Static Control Resilient Flooring Qualification Procedures Ensure Space and Defense ESD Compliance Pt. 2
This article is the second and final part of Static Control Resilient Flooring Qualification Procedures Ensure Space and Defense ESD Compliance. Read Part 1 here. ANSI/ESD STM97.2 This critical standard test method attests to the static control resilient flooring’s ability to minimize charge buildup and provides the user with traceable data to assign a voltage flooring … [Read more...]
When Do You Need Low-Dk PCB Laminates?
Designers looking to build more advanced systems operating at higher data rates and bandwidths tend to rely on materials with low dielectric constant values, i.e., low-Dk materials. It has gotten to the point where every high-speed PCB design guide implies that high-speed and RF designs will not function without a low-Dk material like Rogers or Arlon. The reality is that … [Read more...]
Static Control Resilient Flooring Qualification Procedures Ensure Space and Defense ESD Compliance Pt. 1
Due to the rapid densification of ESD sensitive devices (ESDS), static control resilient flooring (ESD flooring) has found its way into FAA towers, operating room theatres, MRI/CT scan flooring areas, aircraft terminals, IT data centers, Navy ships, space & defense flight lines, call centers, medical device manufacturing, pharmaceutical delivery and the … [Read more...]
Using a TEM Cell for Radiated Emissions and Immunity Troubleshooting
Many companies would welcome a full EMC compliance test chamber if it weren’t for budget and real estate considerations. Yet, they would like the opportunity to develop a low-cost troubleshooting solution for assessing radiated emissions and radiated immunity prior to going off for formal compliance testing. While I’ve written many articles [References 1 to 8] on how to … [Read more...]
Guide to Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers: Definitions
This is Part 2 in a series of articles which review the basics of conventional swept versus real-time spectrum analyzers and highlight some of the recent advances and instrument form-factors. Read Part 1, Guide to Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers: Types, here. Introduction There are several terms that are important when evaluating real-time spectrum analyzers. Some of these … [Read more...]
Advantages of Using a Pre-Certified Radio Frequency Module in an IoT Application
Learn the benefits of using a pre-certified radio frequency (RF) module in the design phase when building a new IoT application, and learn the implications in EMC and Radio certifications. The Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing the quantity and manner in which we exchange and store information. Historically, people exchanged information through reading and … [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...]
SI Metrics That Have Taken Us to 224G
In the world of signal integrity, we rely on many important metrics to qualify high-speed channel designs, both before prototyping and during prototype testing. There is a common group of signal integrity metrics that appear in high-speed digital interface standards and which need to be implemented in printed circuit boards and packages. These signal integrity metrics … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 24
- Next Page »
