You betcha! Once upon a time I was in charge of EMC design for a large scale military digital telecommunications system. This system had to handle both red and black analog and digital data with the proviso that never the twain shall meet. In the lab where all the engineering tests were taking place everything went great until the cables were hung on the … [Read more...]
What’s this about CM and DM radiation?
We’ve been discussing loops all along and we are still at it. The last post looked at DM, this time it’s back to CM. These loops are the worst -- big – bad – ugly! Finding the loop may be a problem . . . but where there’s current, there’s a loop. The DM loop is easy, typically a differential pair over a ground plane in a high-speed system, the CM is some … [Read more...]
Tell Me Again Ron – What’s This About CM & DM Radiation?
Apparently, I didn’t throw enough words at the CM/DM problem in the last several posts so I’m going to add to it, but from a slightly different perspective. It’s either that or hide my email address. I’ll do DM this time, CM next time. We’ve been discussing loops all along. If there’s current, there is a loop somewhere. Finding it may be a … [Read more...]
CM Feeling Bad, Check its Pulse
The last post examined CM radiation. Wow, what a problem! Over 100,000 microvolts/meter from a 3.5 ma signal. If the DM is normally the intended signal, where does the big common mode signal come from? Let’s take a look at that. The whole world seems to be enamored with high speeds. I know I could hardly wait to get a 1 GHz notebook. Did it help me … [Read more...]
And The CM Currents Go Round and Round
When we were discussing green electron current (differential mode) in the last post, I mentioned that common mode (CM) currents (red electrons) are typically caused by unbalanced differential mode (DM) currents. It’s pretty easy to visualize that in an unbalanced differential transmission system, one of the traces is longer, has an extra via, needs a branch, the spacing … [Read more...]
Mom! Dad! Do Open & Short Circuits Really Exist?
I debated whether I should introduce radiated pickup by the DM loop area next and then dismissed it so that I could continue with radiated emission from common mode (CM) currents. These tend to be very mysterious because they are typically caused by unbalanced differential mode (DM) currents. Often these are caused by a few extra grounds floating around somewhere in … [Read more...]
