Key facts

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Overview

Electromagnetic Compatibility is NOT Magic!

This course is part of Oxford University's High-Speed Digital Engineering Month.

Please send me details about future Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Design for Real-World EMI Control courses.

Description

Proper EMC design for printed circuit boards (PCB) can make a significant difference in the final product's performance in the EMC measurement laboratory. Implementing the proper EMC practices during the design phase of the product is critical and can have little or no impact on the product cost when done correctly.

Unfortunately, EMC design is considered to be similar to magic. This seminar focuses on the basic causes of EMC problems, and how to overcome these problems. This seminar is not just a list of "rules of thumb" but rather it helps the student understand why EMC problems happen, and what can be done to eliminate them.

The primary focus of this seminar is to help working engineers understand the causes of EMC problems so this knowledge can be applied to real world product design immediately. Formulas and equations are not required and are minimized throughout the seminar. Understanding the causes of EMC problems will allow engineers to make difficult design trade-off decisions!

What people say about the course

"Good broad outline of EMI control, not just focused on PCB"
Imran Ali, Development Engineer, CITEL Technologies

"Very coherent, good practical examples, pitched at the right level"
Martin Twigg, Applications Engineer, Wolfson Microelectronics

"Informal and informative... informal and entertaining"
Alan Bate, Senior Hardware Engineer, Pace Micro Technology

"Very good. Questions were fully answered, tireless delivery style. Will enable me to make better informed decisions."
Tim Rombach, R&D Engineer, Westinghouse Rail Systems

"Has turned upside-down my understanding of EMC design. As the EMC design/test focal point in the company PCB engineering will be changing for the better."
Graham Blissett, Senior EMC Engineer, AWE Plc

Programme details

Course content

Introduction to General EMC

Why do we need to meet EMC Standards? Examples of EMC related problems

Review of Basic Electromagnetic Principles

What is a 'dB'? Time and frequency domains; Wavelength vs frequency; bits-per-second vs Hertz; Boundary conditions; Skin depth.

Antennas

Simple dipole and monopole antennas; Near field and far field; All conductors as antennas; What causes radiation?

The Grounding Myth

Where did "ground" originate? What do we really mean when we say "ground"? Various "grounding" techniques and strategies.

What is Inductance?

Full definition; Partial inductance; Incomplete inductance; Examples, simple formulas, model for exceptions.

Printed Circuit Board Design

Intentional signals; Unintentional signals; What is a critical signal?; Potential problems; Direct radiation from traces; Board edge effects; Crosstalk; Power/ground-reference plane noise (decoupling); Splits in ground-reference plane in I/O area; Effects of optimum net termination on EMC; Critical net return current flow.

Above Board Radiating Structures

Grounding Heatsinks to Motherboard; Motherboard and Daughter cards; Internal radiation from wires and cables.

Mixed Mode PCB Design

Mixing RF and digital on the same PCB; Mixing analog (audio) and digital signals on the same PCB.

All delegates can purchase a copy of Dr Bruce Archambeault's book "Printed Circuit Board Design for Real-World EMI Control" (Springer) for £99 (publisher's retail price £126).

First day registration from 8.30am when course materials will be distributed.
Refreshments from 8.30am on the first day plus two 30 minute breaks during the day and a one-hour lunch break.
The course will begin at 9.00am and end at approximately 5.00pm on each day.

Staff

Dr Bruce Archambeault

Role: Speaker

Archambeault EMI Enterprises, USA

Dr. Bruce Archambeault received his B.S.E.E degree from the University of New Hampshire in 1977...more and his M.S.E.E degree from Northeastern University in 1981. He received his Ph. D. from the University of New Hampshire in 1997. His doctoral research was in the area of computational electromagnetics applied to real-world EMC problems. In 1981 he joined Digital Equipment Corporation and through 1994 he had assignments ranging from EMC/TEMPEST product design and testing to developing computational electromagnetic EMC-related software tools. In 1994 he joined SETH Corporation where he continued to develop computational electromagnetic EMC-related software tools and used them as a consulting engineer in a variety of different industries. He recently joined IBM in Raleigh, N.C. where he is a Senior member of Technical Staff, and a lead EMC engineer, responsible for EMC tool development and use on a variety of products. During his career in the U.S. Air Force he was responsible for in-house communications security and TEMPEST/EMC related research and development projects.

Dr. Archambeault has authored or co-authored a number of papers in computational electromagnetics, mostly applied to real-world EMC applications. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors on the IEEE EMC Society and a member of the Board of Directors of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES). He is the author of the book titled PCB Design for Real-World EMI Control and the lead author of the book titled EMI/EMC Computational Modeling Handbook. Dr. Archambeault is currently a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE EMC Society.

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Certification

Participants who satisfy the course requirements will receive a Certificate of Attendance. The pdf sample above is an illustration only, and the wording will reflect the course and dates attended.

Level and demands

• Working Board Design engineers and layout engineers who are interested in better understanding the causes of EMC problems, and how to overcome these problems during the design phase without adding cost to the PCB.
• Working EMI/EMC engineers who are interested in achieving a better understanding of the causes of EMC at the PCB level, and how to control these signals.
• Managers and engineers who are interested in obtaining a better understanding of EMI/EMC design so that they can help make better trade-off decisions and provide proper emphasis to EMC design issues.

Accommodation

Accommodation is available at the Rewley House Residential Centre, within the Department for Continuing Education, in central Oxford. The comfortable, en-suite, study-bedrooms are rated 3-star, and come with free high-speed internet access and TV. Guests can take advantage of the excellent dining facilities and common room bar, where they may relax and network with others on the programme.

Payment

Fees include course materials, tuition, refreshments and lunches. The price does not include accommodation.

All courses are VAT exempt.

Fee options

Programme Fee

Standard course fee: £995.00

Standard course fee + a copy of the course book: £1095.00

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Programmes including this module

This module can be studied as part of these programmes:

• High-speed digital engineering and EMC