IEEE EMC-Phoenix

Table of Contents

About IEEE EMC-Phoenix

Chapter officers

Next meeting

Future meetings and programs

Last meeting summary

IEEE EMC Society Home Page

IEEE Phoenix Section Home Page

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About IEEE-EMC Phoenix:

Officers:

Next Meeting:

Date: Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Place: Garcia's Mexican Restaurant at Embassy Suites Hotel
Address: 4400 South Rural Road, Tempe, Arizona
Address: Just South of U.S. 60 on West side of Rural Rd.
Time: 5:30PM Social, 6PM Dinner (order off the menu), 7PM Meeting 

Title: EMC Immunity Scanning – A New Way to Look at System Level Immunity 

Speaker:  Michael Hopkins, General Manager of EM Test USA, Hollis, New Hampshire

Abstract:    The most common effects of ESD are the secondary effects such as “upset” or “soft” failures as opposed to hard failures where device fail completely.  Michael Hopkins will present a method of locating specific areas and devices that are sensitive to the secondary effects of ESD and other transients.  Michael also has a couple of short lightning videos that everyone will like including a 598ms lightning event photographed at 7000 frames/sec and played back over a 2 minute period.

Biography:    Michael Hopkins has nearly 30 years experience with EMC and ESD as an independent consultant, an employee of Thermo Fisher Scientific working with the KeyTek product lines, Amber Precision Instruments, and now as the General Manager of EM Test USA. He has worked closely with manufacturers and laboratories world-wide providing training, applications help, and assistance with the development of interpretation of test standards. He is the author of several papers and articles on ESD and other system level EMC phenomena, and has participated in numerous national and international seminars as author, speaker, and panelist. Michael is an active member of several committees developing standards for industry including the ESD Association, IEC Technical Committees 77A and B for the development and maintenance of Basic EMC standards, IEEE, SAE and ANSI.

Reservations: To help us get an accurate headcount, please send an email to Harry Gaul (harry.gaul@ieee.org).   There is no charge for meetings, but you pay for your own meal and drinks. Since we order off the menu, we do not need an exact number, so if you decide at the last minute, please come anyway. You don’t need to be an IEEE or EMC Society member to attend -- all are welcome. 

Future Meeting:

Date: Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
Place: Garcia's Mexican Restaurant at Embassy Suites Hotel
Address: 4400 South Rural Road, Tempe, Arizona
Address: Just South of U.S. 60 on West side of Rural Rd.
Time: 5:30PM Social, 6PM Dinner (order off the menu), 7PM Meeting 

Title: Engineering Aspects of PCB Level EMC Design

Speaker:  Dr. Sergiu Radu, Principal Engineer at Sun Microsystems

Abstract:    The PCB design is a complex cooperation between electrical, mechanical, thermal, SI, PI and EMC design. In a practical design, the EMC design engineer has to make trade-offs and understand the relative impact of different design choices. The lecture is an overview of the typical PCB design aspects and their role for the EMC performance. Among the aspects discussed are placement, stack-up, routing, decoupling, and grounding aspects. The design of the I/O ports , in order to pass the emissions and immunity tests is also discussed in greater detail.

Biography:    Dr. Sergiu Radu is currently Principal Engineer at Sun Microsystems, leading the EMC Design group in Menlo Park, California. His role at Sun includes the development and implementation of architectural frameworks for EMC Design through design guidelines and best practices, and to provide forward looking solutions, root cause analysis of significant EMC problems, design methodologies involving software simulations and better prediction techniques. Sergiu Radu received a M.S. and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (Electronics) from Technical University of Iasi, Romania, and until 1996 he was an Associate Professor at the same university, involved in Electromagnetic Compatibility teaching and research. From 1996 until 1998 he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Missouri-Rolla, as part of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory. In 1998 he joined the EMC Engineering group at Sun Microsystems. Sergiu holds seven US patents for EMI reduction techniques in electronic systems and has published more than 50 papers in research journals, symposia, and magazines. He is a reviewer for IEEE Transactions on EMC. He is also a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE EMC Society..

Reservations: To help us get an accurate headcount, please send an email to Harry Gaul (harry.gaul@ieee.org).   There is no charge for meetings, but you pay for your own meal and drinks. Since we order off the menu, we do not need an exact number, so if you decide at the last minute, please come anyway. You don’t need to be an IEEE or EMC Society member to attend -- all are welcome. 

Last Meeting:

The first IEEE EMC Phoenix Chapter meeting of 2010 was held on Tuesday, January 19th 2009 at Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant in the Embassy Suites Hotel at Rural Road and US-60 in Tempe, AZ.   The meeting began with the customary social hour starting at 5:30 pm, with dinner at six. This time we had the largest attendance ever, completely filling the meeting room and several tables outside of the meeting room!  After we all had our fill of Garcia’s great Mexican food, chapter vice-chairman Daryl Gerke called the meeting to order. Daryl explained that the scheduled speaker, Kevin Slattery of Intel, was not able to make it due to transportation problems.   So, our Chapter Chair, Harry Gaul,  stepped in at the last minute to give a presentation.  We then discussed future speakers, including Mike Hopkins, who will be presenting on EMC Immunity Scanning – A New Way to Look at System Level Immunity  on February 25.  We are also looking forward to a very interesting distinguished lecturer, Dr. Sergiu Radu, who will speak on PCB Design on April 7th.  We then continued with our customary round table introductions and the call for EMC employment/employers.  After the general chapter business was completed, Harry Gaul started his presentation.

Harry is the Technical Manager of the EMI/EMC Group at General Dynamics C4 Systems in Scottsdale, AZ.  He has been the Phoenix chapter chairman for over 10 years.   He received his BSME from the University of Colorado in 1978 and an MBA from Arizona State University in 1998. Harry is a NARTE certified EMI/EMC Engineer and is a registered PE in the state of Arizona.

 As of October 1, 2010, the European Union will require product conformance to EN55022:2006 A1 (2007), which requires radiated emissions testing above 1 GHz for products with internal clocks greater than 108 MHz.  No “grandfathering” will be allowed for products already on the market.   In the past, Normalized Site Attenuation (NSA) testing was used to qualify a test facility for radiated emissions testing.  However, NSA testing is not useful above 1GHz since directional antennas are typically used in that frequency range.   To verify that a test facility is useful for testing above 1GHz, procedures for Site VSWR testing have been developed by CISPR/A and are presented in CISPR 16-1-4.

 The test methodology involves placing a receive antenna on a tripod and measuring the emissions of an omni-directional source antenna located in free-space or on a non-conductive (e.g., polystyrene) table.  Eighteen source antenna positions are required in both horizontal and vertical receive antenna polarizations.  Test frequencies should be in 50 MHz steps from 1 – 6 GHz.  The source antenna positions extend along the center line of the turntable and along a ‘V’ formed by the edges of the test volume.  Maximum versus minimum values cannot be apart by more than 6dB.    Problems have been encountered when attempting to meet Site VSWR, especially in an absorber lined chamber.  Potential areas of concern include: EUT table material (polystyrene blocks work well as opposed to wood or high density plastic), tripods, antenna positioners, door handles, floor absorber layout and wall absorber characteristics.  

 The meeting was called to a close at about 7:45 pm.  Our thanks to all who attended, as well as to TMS Marketing, who provided the drinks!

Daryl Gerke thanks Harry Gaul for his presentation on Site VSWR measurements to the Phoenix Chapter.  Photo by Steve Gerard.

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