Radiated Emissions

A common question in new product development is, “How do I properly ground the heatsink?” As a practicing compliance professional, this is an important question to have at least an idea of how to respond.

The history and insight into how the EMC specifications and procedures evolved at one automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Other present-day OEM specifications are more similar than different mostly due to the extensive reference to international standards which these OEMs have taken part in developing (e.g., EMC committees). Knowing this history should help today’s EMC practitioners, especially those new to the discipline, gain some insight into the implementation and limitations of test procedures and when to be flexible in analyzing test results.

If you think you’re ever going to need to use flexible RF absorber sheets to help your product pass emissions, even at some later date, it might be a good idea to have already identified and obtained the material and have characterized its insertion-loss performance.

In this column, the author offers a brief summary of a more systematic approach for using ferrite cores on cables. This summary can serve as a “ferrite core checklist” for design and test engineers.

An AM radio can be useful for finding both radiated emissions and ESD events. Understanding how radio works is essential for engineers to use this low-cost technology to troubleshoot complex EMI issues.