This tutorial is an overview of many of the major topics that need to be considered when designing an electronic product or system to meet EMI/EMC requirements. The tutorial will present the foundational ideas from physics and mathematics and will demonstrate the engineering approaches to help the attendees to be able successfully design, evaluate, diagnose, and/or solve EMI/EMC problems. The main objective of this tutorial is to provide a learning opportunity for those that are new to EMC/EMI as well as provide a review of the basics to those who already have experience in this area. Topics included in the Tutorial are emissions, printed circuit boards, grounding, shielding, cables, filters and testing fundamentals.

Co-chairs:
Lee Hill, Silent Solutions LLC. Amherst, New Hampshire, USA
Sarah Seguin, Resonant Frequency, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Speakers and Topics:

Introduction (5 minutes)
Lee Hill, Silent Solutions LLC. Amherst, New Hampshire, USA

8:30 am – 9:15 am ET
Introduction to Crosstalk (including the common impedance, E-field and H-field coupling) (45 minutes) – The physical and mathematical basis behind crosstalk; identifying inductive/capacitive/common-impedance coupling mechanisms; mitigation techniques, including shielding. PCB and cables/connectors.
Thomas Jerse, The Boeing Company, Seattle, Washington, USA

9:15 am – 10:00 am ET
Inductance and Capacitance(45 minutes) – Relationship between voltage, E-fields and capacitance. Relationship between currents, H-fields and inductance. Definition of inductance from Faraday’s law, loop inductance (highlight loop size and current density as secondary but important in some cases), how to calculate, mutual inductance (effect of distance between loops). Definition and concepts of internal and external inductance, self and mutual inductance, partial inductance. Estimating inductance of canonical structures.
Bruce Archambeault, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri, USA and IBM, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

10:30 am – 11:15 am ET
Fundamentals of EMC: Current Return Path (45 minutes) – The influence of frequency and inductance on return currents; the impact of the return path on emissions and susceptibility. Effect of traces near edge of planes, return current spread (microstrip vs. stripline), effect of via transitions on return current. Current paths in buildings, vehicles and enclosures; as well as current paths at the PCB-level and IC-level.
Scott Piper, General Motors Corporation, Milford, Michigan, USA

11:15 am – 12:00 pm ET
Transmission Lines and Basic Signal Integrity Fundamentals (45 minutes) – Time and frequency behavior of transmission lines; transmission line impedance, matching, and reflection; brief introduction to S-parameters; impact of transmission line behavior on signal integrity. Differential and common-mode signaling; very basic channel analysis (eye diagrams, bit-error rate, jitter, equalization).
Xaioning Ye, Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, Oregon, USA

1:30 pm – 2:15 pm ET
Radiated Emissions (RE) (45 minutes) – Frequency content of digital signals; generation of electric and magnetic fields; identifying typical noise sources that drive unintentional antennas. Efficiency of unintentional antenna vs. physical/electric size.
Lee Hill, Silent Solutions LLC, USA, Amherst, New Hampshire, USA

2:15 pm – 3:00 pm ET
Shielding 101 (45 minutes) – A brief introduction to the theory of shielding, absorption and reflection loss, the difference between electric, low-frequency magnetic and high-frequency magnetic field shielding. Near field shielding vs. shielding to reduce far field radiation. Shielded enclosures and the influence of apertures and holes on shielding effectiveness. Shielding materials and gaskets; effective and ineffective techniques of implementing a shield. Discussion of cable shielding.
Robert Scully, NASA, Houston, Texas, USA

3:30 pm – 4:15 pm ET
Introduction to EMI Filters (45 minutes) – Parasitic effects in real world filter components. Differential and common-mode signals; imbalance in differential-mode circuits, the concept of noise blocking and noise diversion; common filter configurations; filtering of common-mode and differential mode noise; implementation of filters for power lines and for I/O; measurement of conducted noise.
Randy Jost, Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, Westminster, Colorado, USA

4:15 pm – 5:00 pm ET
Grounding (45 minutes) – The difference between a “ground” and a “signal return”; where to ground for emissions and immunity and why; where to ground for safety and why; ground loops; purpose of single-point grounds to avoid low frequency conducted coupling. Relationship between grounding and bonding. Resistance/impedance levels for various types of grounding connections – DC vs. RF.
Todd Hubing, LearnEMC, Stoughton, Wisconsin, USA