Electromagnetic interference (EMI), also called radio-frequency interference (RFI) when in

the radio frequency spectrum, is a disturbance generated by an external source that affects an

electrical circuit by electromagnetic induction, electrostatic coupling, or conduction.[1] The
disturbance may degrade the performance of the circuit or even stop it from functioning. In the
case of a data path, these effects can range from an increase in error rate to a total loss of the
data.[2] Both man-made and natural sources generate changing electrical currents and voltages
that can cause EMI: ignition systems, cellular network of mobile phones, lightning, solar flares,
and auroras (Northern/Southern Lights). EMI frequently affects AM radios. It can also
affect mobile phones, FM radios, and televisions, as well as observations for radio astronomy.
EMI can be used intentionally for radio jamming, as in electronic warfare.

Types[edit]
Electromagnetic interference can be categorized as follows:

 Narrowband EMI or RFI interference typically emanates from intended transmissions,

such as radio and TV stations or mobile phones.
 Broadband EMI or RFI interference is unintentional radiation from sources such
as electric power transmission lines.[4][5][6]
Conducted electromagnetic interference is caused by the physical contact of the conductors as
opposed to radiated EMI, which is caused by induction (without physical contact of the
conductors). Electromagnetic disturbances in the EM field of a conductor will no longer be
confined to the surface of the conductor and will radiate away from it. This persists in all
conductors and mutual inductance between two radiated electromagnetic fields will result in EMI.

ITU definition[edit]
Interference with the meaning of electromagnetic interference, also radio-frequency
interference (short: EMI | RFI) is – according to Article 1.166 of the International
Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Radio Regulations (RR)[7] – defined as «The effect of
unwanted energy due to one or a combination of emissions, radiations, or inductions upon
reception in a radiocommunication system, manifested by any performance degradation,
misinterpretation, or loss of information which could be extracted in the absence of such
unwanted energy».
This is also a definition used by the frequency administration to provide frequency
assignments and assignment of frequency channels to radio stations or systems, as well as to
analyze electromagnetic compatibility between radiocommunication services.
In accordance with ITU RR (article 1) variations of interference are classified as follows:

 Permissible interference
 Acceptable interference
 Harmful interference

Conducted interference[edit]
Conducted EMI is caused by the physical contact of the conductors as opposed to radiated EMI
which is caused by induction (without physical contact of the conductors).
For lower frequencies, EMI is caused by conduction and, for higher frequencies, by radiation.
EMI through the ground wire is also very common in an electrical facility.

Susceptibilities of different radio technologies[edit]

Interference tends to be more troublesome with older radio technologies such as
analogue amplitude modulation, which have no way of distinguishing unwanted in-band signals
from the intended signal, and the omnidirectional antennas used with broadcast systems. Newer
radio systems incorporate several improvements that enhance the selectivity. In digital radio
systems, such as Wi-Fi, error-correction techniques can be used. Spread-
spectrum and frequency-hopping techniques can be used with both analogue and digital
signalling to improve resistance to interference. A highly directional receiver, such as a parabolic
antenna or a diversity receiver, can be used to select one signal in space to the exclusion of
others.
The most extreme example of digital spread-spectrum signalling to date is ultra-wideband
(UWB), which proposes the use of large sections of the radio spectrum at low amplitudes to
transmit high-bandwidth digital data. UWB, if used exclusively, would enable very efficient use of
the spectrum, but users of non-UWB technology are not yet prepared to share the spectrum with
the new system because of the interference it would cause to their receivers (the regulatory
implications of UWB are discussed in the ultra-wideband article).

Interference to consumer devices[edit]

In the United States, the 1982 Public Law 97-259 allowed the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) to regulate the susceptibility of consumer electronic equipment.[8][9]
Potential sources of RFI and EMI include:[10] various types of transmitters, doorbell
transformers, toaster ovens, electric blankets, ultrasonic pest control devices, electric bug
zappers, heating pads, and touch controlled lamps. Multiple CRT computer monitors or
televisions sitting too close to one another can sometimes cause a "shimmy" effect in each other,
due to the electromagnetic nature of their picture tubes, especially when one of their de-
gaussing coils is activated.
Electromagnetic interference at 2.4 GHz can be caused by 802.11b and 802.11g wireless
devices, Bluetooth devices, baby monitors and cordless telephones, video senders,
and microwave ovens.
Switching loads (inductive, capacitive, and resistive), such as electric motors, transformers,
heaters, lamps, ballast, power supplies, etc., all cause electromagnetic interference especially at
currents above 2 A. The usual method used for suppressing EMI is by connecting
a snubber network, a resistor in series with a capacitor, across a pair of contacts. While this may
offer modest EMI reduction at very low currents, snubbers do not work at currents over 2 A
with electromechanical contacts.[11][12]
Another method for suppressing EMI is the use of ferrite core noise suppressors, which are
inexpensive and which clip on to the power lead of the offending device or the compromised
device.
Switched-mode power supplies can be a source of EMI, but have become less of a problem as
design techniques have improved, such as integrated power factor correction.
Most countries have legal requirements that mandate electromagnetic compatibility: electronic
and electrical hardware must still work correctly when subjected to certain amounts of EMI, and
should not emit EMI, which could interfere with other equipment (such as radios).
Radio frequency signal quality has declined throughout the 21st century by roughly one decibel
per year as the spectrum becomes increasingly crowded.[additional citation(s) needed] This has inflicted a Red
Queen's race on the mobile phone industry as companies have been forced to put up more
cellular towers (at new frequencies) that then cause more interference thereby requiring more
investment by the providers and frequent upgrades of mobile phones to match.[13]

Standards[edit]
The International Special Committee for Radio Interference or CISPR (French acronym for
"Comité International Spécial des Perturbations Radioélectriques"), which is a committee of the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) sets international standards for radiated and
conducted electromagnetic interference. These are civilian standards for domestic, commercial,
industrial and automotive sectors. These standards form the basis of other national or regional
standards, most notably the European Norms (EN) written by CENELEC (European committee
for electrotechnical standardisation). US organizations include the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the US
Military (MILSTD).

EMI in integrated circuits[edit]

Main article: Electromagnetic compatibility

Integrated circuits are often a source of EMI, but they must usually couple their energy to larger
objects such as heatsinks, circuit board planes and cables to radiate significantly.[14]
On integrated circuits, important means of reducing EMI are: the use of bypass or decoupling
capacitors on each active device (connected across the power supply, as close to the device as
possible), rise time control of high-speed signals using series resistors,[15] and IC power supply
pin filtering. Shielding is usually a last resort after other techniques have failed, because of the
added expense of shielding components such as conductive gaskets.
The efficiency of the radiation depends on the height above the ground plane or power
plane (at RF, one is as good as the other) and the length of the conductor in relation to the
wavelength of the signal component (fundamental frequency, harmonic or transient such as
overshoot, undershoot or ringing). At lower frequencies, such as 133 MHz, radiation is almost
exclusively via I/O cables; RF noise gets onto the power planes and is coupled to the line drivers
via the VCC and GND pins. The RF is then coupled to the cable through the line driver
as common-mode noise. Since the noise is common-mode, shielding has very little effect, even
with differential pairs. The RF energy is capacitively coupled from the signal pair to the shield and
the shield itself does the radiating. One cure for this is to use a braid-breaker or choke to reduce
the common-mode signal.
At higher frequencies, usually above 500 MHz, traces get electrically longer and higher above
the plane. Two techniques are used at these frequencies: wave shaping with series resistors and
embedding the traces between the two planes. If all these measures still leave too much EMI,
shielding such as RF gaskets and copper tape can be used. Most digital equipment is designed
with metal or conductive-coated plastic cases.

RF immunity and testing[edit]

Any unshielded semiconductor (e.g. an integrated circuit) will tend to act as a detector for those
radio signals commonly found in the domestic environment (e.g. mobile phones).[16]Such a
detector can demodulate the high frequency mobile phone carrier (e.g., GSM850 and GSM1900,
GSM900 and GSM1800) and produce low-frequency (e.g., 217 Hz) demodulated signals.[17] This
demodulation manifests itself as unwanted audible buzz in audio appliances such
as microphone amplifier, speaker amplifier, car radio, telephones etc. Adding onboard EMI filters
or special layout techniques can help in bypassing EMI or improving RF immunity.[18] Some ICs
are designed (e.g., LMV831-LMV834,[19] MAX9724[20]) to have integrated RF filters or a special
design that helps reduce any demodulation of high-frequency carrier.
Designers often need to carry out special tests for RF immunity of parts to be used in a system.
These tests are often done in an anechoic chamber with a controlled RF environment where the
test vectors produce a RF field similar to that produced in an actual environment.[17]
RFI in radio astronomy[edit]
Interference in radio astronomy, where it is commonly referred to as radio-frequency interference
(RFI), is any source of transmission that is within the observed frequency band other than the
celestial sources themselves. Because transmitters on and around the Earth can be many times
stronger than the astronomical signal of interest, RFI is a major concern for performing radio
astronomy. Natural sources of interference, such as lightning and the Sun, are also often referred
to as RFI.
Some of the frequency bands that are very important for radio astronomy, such as the 21-cm HI
line at 1420 MHz, are protected by regulation. This is called spectrum management. However,
modern radio-astronomical observatories such as VLA, LOFAR and ALMA have a very large
bandwidth over which they can observe. Because of the limited spectral space at radio
frequencies, these frequency bands cannot be completely allocated to radio astronomy.
Therefore, observatories need to deal with RFI in their observations.
Techniques to deal with RFI range from filters in hardware to advanced algorithms in software.
One way to deal with strong transmitters is to filter out the frequency of the source completely.
This is for example the case for the LOFAR observatory, which filters out the FM radio stations
between 90-110 MHz. It is important to remove such strong sources of interference as soon as
possible, because they might "saturate" the highly sensitive receivers (amplifiers and analog-to-
digital converters), which means that the received signal is stronger than the receiver can handle.
However, filtering out a frequency band implies that these frequencies can never be observed
with the instrument.
A common technique to deal with RFI within the observed frequency bandwidth, is to employ RFI
detection in software. Such software can find samples in time, frequency or time-frequency
space that are contaminated by an interfering source. These samples are subsequently ignored
in further analysis of the observed data. This process is often referred to as data flagging.
Because most transmitters have a small bandwidth and are not continuously present such as
lightning or citizens' band (CB) radio devices, most of the data remains available for the
astronomical analysis. However, data flagging can not solve issues with continuous broad-band
transmitters, such as windmills, digital video or digital audiotransmitters.
Another way to manage RFI is to establish a radio quiet zone (RQZ). RQZ is a well-defined area
surrounding receivers that has special regulations to reduce RFI in favor of radio astronomy
observations within the zone. The regulations may include special management of spectrum and
power flux or power flux-density limitations. The controls within the zone may cover elements
other than radio transmitters or radio devices. These include aircraft controls and control of
unintentional radiators such as industrial, scientific and medical devices, vehicles, and power
lines. The first RQZ for radio astronomy is United States National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ),
established in 1958.[21]

RELATION WITH THIS COURSE:

REFERENCES:

1.  Based on the "interference" entry of The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th edition, online
2. Sue, M.K.  "Radio frequency interference at the geostationary orbit".  NASA. Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. Retrieved 6 October 2011.

http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19810018807

3. "Council Directive 89/336/EEC of 3 May 1989 on the approximation of the laws of the Member
States relating to electromagnetic compatibility". EUR-Lex. 3 May 1989. Retrieved  21
January  2014.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31989L0336:en:NOT

4. "Radio Frequency Interference - And What to Do About It".  Radio-Sky Journal. Radio-Sky
Publishing. March 2001. Retrieved 21 January  2014.

http://www.radiosky.com/journal0901.html

5. Radio frequency interference / editors, Charles L. Hutchinson, Michael B. Kaczynski ; contributors,

Doug DeMaw ... [et al.]. 4th ed. Newington, CT American Radio Relay League c1987.
6. Radio frequency interference handbook. Compiled and edited by Ralph E. Taylor. Washington
Scientific and Technical Information Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration; [was
for sale by the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Va.] 1971.
7. ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems – Article 1.166,
definition: interference