EMC questions answered

Kenneth Wyatt - August 22, 2013

Thanks for all the great questions presented following my recent EMC webinar, sponsored by Rohde
& Schwarz and hosted by UBM TechOnline. If you missed the webinar, you may go here to download
a copy of the slides and listen to the webinar "on-demand". As I mentioned in the previous three
postings, I've grouped them by topic and will be answering them all the best I can. Be advised that
for many questions pertaining to EMC, the best answer is, "it depends", so there may not be one
answer for all cases. I'll try to include my assumptions in the answers. The questions have been
edited for clarity.

This posting will address general questions on EMC from my recent webinar that were not answered
in previous installments.

Q. Can you briefly discuss the differences between North American and EU standards on EMC?

A. The standards bodies in North America includes the U.S. FCC and the Canadian Industry Canada.
While there are minor differences, there is currently a mutual recognition agreement between the
two countries whereby each country agrees to accept test reports from the other country for
equipment authorization.

The EMC standards in the EU require immunity testing, where the U.S and Canada do not require
this. The limits for radiated emissions differ a bit, however. For more information on the differences,
I would refer you to Henry Ott's summary of worldwide standards or you should be able to find out
specific requirements from your local EMC test facility.

Q. What is the lowest frequency that is of practical concern for the EMC directive?

A. That would be 150 kHz for conducted emissions.

Q. What's your take on spread-spectrum frequency/phase modulation for EMI mitigation-

narrowband to broadband?

A. I recently wrote an article on the subject for Interference Technology Magazine. Spread spectrum
clocking lowers the average emission within the measurement passband (120 kHz, typically, for the
range 30 to 1000 MHz), but care must be taken to avoid applications where this is inappropriate.
Spread spectrum control of some switch-mode power supply ICs is also a good way to reduce the
average emission from these broadband sources. See the article for more.

Q. Good Morning We are designing a hand held product for gas measurement environment. Can you
please let me know standard about the EN50270-01 and what are the emission/immunity test to be
followed for meet EN50270-01 compliance?
A. Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with that standard. Your best bet is to purchase the standard from the IEC
or ANSI web sites or discuss the requirements with your local EMC test facility.

Q. What components have the highest chance of introducing emission noise?

A. Any device that produces fast edged high frequency digital signals. This would include oscillators,
clock buffers, high-speed A/D and D/A converters, ASICs, microprocessors and the like.

Q. Is there a reasonably priced near-field probe available for >2 GHz?

A. You can make either an H-field or E-field probe from semirigid coax cable. The smaller sized loops
or any of the E-field probes should work very well past 2 GHz. Remember, the larger the loop, the
lower the self-resonant frequency, so choose a loop size of around 1/2 cm in diameter, or smaller.
Beehive Electronics makes a good low-cost set for under $300, some of which are good up to, or
past, 2 GHz.

Q. is it possible to fail conducted emissions only and not radiated and why?

A. I suppose there may be a certain rise time on the switch mode power supply that could fail CE
and pass RE. The amount of radiated emissions depends on the frequency and rise time of the
waveform. I'd refer you to either Henry Ott's or Clayton Paul's books on EMC Engineering.

Q. What about frequencies above 1 GHz, e.g. 10 GHz?

A. I'm not sure what you mean, but I've definitely seen emissions problems above 1 GHz, particularly
from high speed serial interfaces. For example, a recently tested disk drive array, which used the
SAS (serial attached SCSI) protocol, produced strong emissions at 6 and 12 GHz (the fundamental
and second harmonic).

Q. Any recommended tool for analyzing the EMI issues in PCB?

A. I've written several articles on troubleshooting PC boards using near field probes and current
probes. Check the "Links" section on my web site. One thing to be aware of, however, is that not all
strong signals, when probing a PC board, mean the structure will radiate efficiently. I'd refer you to
this recent blog posting.

Q. In the 30-1000MHz range, what frequency range would most likely be power supply noise?

A. Most noise from switch mode power supplies occurs in the range up to 200 MHz.

Q. how we can identify whether emitted noise is DM or CM

A. It's possible to determine whether a current in a cable is differential mode or common mode by
using a pair of current probes. Henry Ott also describes a simple differential mode rejection network
you can build on page 706 of his book, Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineering (Wiley, 2009).

Q. I saw a statement that susceptibility to radiated sources can also cause susceptibility to ESD. Can
you expound?

A. This refers to cables, seams and other potential "antenna-like" structures. Any antenna structure
may transmit and receive equally well. In addition, Babinet's Principle generally states that any
dipole antenna may be represented by an equal length slot or seam in a metallic plane. Thus, energy
(RF or ESD) impinging on a structure like a poorly terminated cable, enclosure seam/slot, or poorly
design PC board, may receive and conduct this energy so as to disrupt your circuitry.

Q. On reducing common-mode emissions, you suggest "reduce the current level (also by slowing rise
times)". Is there a relationship between rise time and how much current flows?

A. The current is determined primarily by the source and load impedance (Ohm's Law). However,
the rise/fall time and fundamental frequency determines the high frequency components (harmonic
energy) of the common-mode current. The faster the rise/fall time, the higher the harmonics and
amplitudes. Henry Ott or Clayton Paul's books make good references and include the relationship
between E-field, frequency cable/slot length and current. I've also written several troubleshooting
articles on this subject. Check the "Links" section of my web site.

Q. Have strong solar activity affected the efficiency of poorly shielded devices ?

A. I suspect solar activity would not not be much impact for smaller products. Solar flares can
certainly be picked up by power lines and can greatly affect the operation of the power grid. Solar
flares also affect certain communications bands.

I have written extensively on how to perform pre-compliance testing for radiated emissions and
would invite you all to read some of the postings on The EMC Blog, as well as the links to some of
my articles in other magazines.

Feel free to add additional questions related to general EMC. This is the final Q&A posting from the
webinar in April 2013. If you missed the webinar, you may go here to download a copy of the slides
and listen to the webinar "on-demand".

Finally, I'd like to thank all those who tuned in to the webinar back in April and who submitted so
many great questions! I'd also like to thank Rohde & Schwarz and UBM TechOnline for hosting this
webinar.

Related posts:

Questions on cables for EMC mitigation

Questions on PC boards for EMC mitigation

Questions on EMC pre-compliance testing for radiated emissions