News

Issue 4

**GaN/SiC for Your Next Design – Fight or Flight?**
*By Dr Min Zhang, Mach One Design, an Associate of Cherry*
*Clough Consultants Ltd*

As a technical consultant, I have seen various new technologies implemented in both new and old applications. In the semiconductor industry, wide band gap (WBG) devices such as Silicon carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors have been gaining attention due to their small size, fast speed, and better thermal performance.

**Reducing The Ambient EM Noise For Benchtop EMI Troubleshooting**
*By Dr Min Zhang, Mach One Design, an Associate of Cherry*
*Clough Consultants Ltd*

Over the past few years, several equipment manufacturers have launched affordable benchtop spectrum analyzers and pre-compliance EMC equipment (such as LISNs, CDNs, RF current probes & RF amplifiers, etc) that are useful for several aspects of EMI troubleshooting and pre-compliance work. These units are often priced between $1000 and $3000 (USD). A small-to-medium enterprise (SME) can therefore have its own benchtop EMC pre-compliance set-up at a total cost of $5000.

**Storing Electrical Charge With Capacitors**
*By Dr Min Zhang, Mach One Design, an Associate of Cherry*
*Clough Consultants Ltd*

Capacitors are energy storage devices that store electrical charge without a continuous current flow. By using a charge and discharge method, capacitors reduce magnetically driven electrical impulses, limiting the likelihood of electromagnetic interference (EMI). Here, Dr Min Zhang, EMC consultant at Mach One Design, in collaboration with electronics component manufacturer REO UK, discusses the different types of capacitors and how they are used when designing an EMI filter.

**Experiences Of The EMC World**
Chris Nicholas, of Threysus, an Associate of Cherry
Clough Consultants Ltd

I would say that it was accidental. As a young boy, I was interested in electricity and radio electronics. At that time, electronics equipment was large, – physically, and heavy! Lots of iron cored chokes and transformers, condensers (capacitors), valves (tubes) and not a semiconductor in sight except for maybe for the selenium rectifiers. Those were quite large as well. I became quite adept at recognising mains hum on loudspeakers.

**Layout Optimisation And Package Enhancements To Minimise Switch Node Ringing And Associated Radiated EMI In A DC/DC Buck Converter** – *Dr Jim Perkins – Senior Member Technical Staff – Texas Instruments*

Switch node ringing can be a significant source of EMI.
Requires a resonant circuit and activation energy at the resonant frequency

**Brexit and CE Marking**
*Dai Davis – Solicitor and Chartered Engineer Partner, Percy Crow Davis & Co*

Structure of CE Marking legislation
What are the three Brexit agreements
Immediate effect of Brexit on EU law
Differences between CE and UKCA Marking
Northern Ireland and UKNI

**Filter Optimisation For High Power Converters**
*Graham Roberts MEng (Hons) PhD CEng INCE MIET*

EMC Filter Simulation – A ‘bad’ filter based on a topology used in an automotive on board charger was simulated. Including Enclosure Parasitic Effects – The model included parasitic effects of the PCB and enclosure using FEA in Ansys Q3D. The model was validated against measurement on a prototype. Circuit diagram of the filter topology to be simulated. Read More

**Suppressing Radio Frequency Noise With Ferrite Cores**
REO UK – Dr Zhang

Undesired, high frequency electrical noises can cause electrical equipment to malfunction. One way to combat this is by using ferrite cores. They work by suppressing electromagnetic emissions by blocking low frequency noise while also absorbing high frequency noise to avoid electromagnetic interference (EMI). Read More

Issue 2

**JAGUAR LAND ROVER PREPARES FOR ADVANCED ELECTRIFIED AND CONNECTED FUTURE WITH NEW TESTING FACILITY**

Jaguar Land Rover has taken another step towards a new era of electrification and connectivity by opening a facility to test the next generation of vehicles for electrical and radio interference. The Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) laboratory at Gaydon in the UK, will ensure future vehicles meet current and future legislation and quality standards for connectivity and electronics. Read More

**An Introduction to EMI Filters – REO UK**

Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) may seem like black magic for some
design engineers, but this lack of confidence stands in the way of success. Engineers can perform multiple EMI mitigation procedures, only to find a product still fails the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) test. Read More

**The Earth (Ground) As An Antenna For Radio Frequency Propagation**

In 1952, a German scientist, Winfried Otto Schuman pointed out the existence of a waveguide resonator between the earth and the ionosphere with a natural resonance of about 7Hz. Nicola Tesla had also made note of these resonances but did not investigate them further. Other investigators since followed and the scene was set for ELF (extremely low frequency) propagation. Read More

**Effective USB 3.1 Filtering and Protection – Wurth Electronik**

The USB connector and standard are one of the most widely implemented and successful interaces ever used. the applications are commercial and industrial, and both have been pushing the standard to be faster. USB standard has been updated to version 3.1. Read More

Numbers 901 onwards will be a regular feature in EMC Aware magazine, every quarter. Some of these stories are extracted from official
documents and reports, some are personal anecdotes, and some come from research. Some of these EMI Stories had harmless or amusing
outcomes, some lost companies large amounts of time/money, even causing bankruptcy, and some caused (or could easily have caused) injuries and deaths. Read More

**Siglent Brings Its A-Game With A Trio Of Performance T&M Instruments**

This study describes a novel genetically-labeled mouse line that will be a valuable resource in future investigations of the molecular mechanisms of visual circuit formation.
Read More

Issue 1

**Getting the Financial Resources We Need**

How to Get the Financial Resources We Need A problem faced by all engineers and engineering managers is persuading our managers that we need a new item of test equipment, or need to add something to a product that is not in its technical specification (for example to reduce financial risks such as high levels of warranty returns), or whatever.
Read More

**Insertion Loss and Filter Performance**

Filters are almost always a part of electronics design. Design engineers design a filter to achieve certain attenuation in specified frequency range. There are many types of filters, such as high pass, low pass or bandwidth. Popular filter configurations include L-C, C-L-C (π) or L-C-L (T). It is safe to say that when it comes to filter design, the discussion of the subject could easily become a very thick book.

In this article, we only want to discuss one fundamental subject, which is the performance of a filter. The performance of a filter is measured in terms of attenuation, or insertion loss, both of which use the units of dB.
Read More

**The Magic Loop Techniques of using magnetic field loops**
Dr Min Zhang

The simplest form of a transformer is a pair of wires placed in close proximity. When a changing current I1 goes through conductor 1, there is
voltage induced on conductor 2 (assuming conductor 2 is open circuit). The induced voltage is defined as V2 = M dI1/dt, where M is the mutual inductance between the two conductors. Read More

REO UK Celebrating EMC & Compliance International 2022 Event, With Their 18th Book, The Engineers’ Practical Guide To EMI Filters. Come And Grab A FREE Copy Today – Stand 34 Read More

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