Don MacArthur

Although understanding each capacitor type and behavior is daunting and difficult to memorize, it is prudent that every aspiring engineer and technician involved in design for EMC at least have a rudimentary understanding of what capacitor technologies are available.

To determine a shielding material’s potential absorption loss capability, you must first know the frequency or frequencies of concern and, second, what shield materials you have available.

From the entire pool of test equipment available at our disposal as electronics engineers and technicians, the most useful is undoubtedly the oscilloscope. 

We leave the basics behind and explore more of the state-of-the-art advanced cool features, functionality and specifications that are available in today’s oscilloscopes.

In this article, we describe a method for analyzing data using the FFT algorithm found in Python’s SciPy module. The reader should know that the SciPy module also includes methods for other FFT algorithms, such as the Inverse FFT and Discrete Sine and Cosine methods.

Many years ago, the author experimented on a metal enclosure of one of his company’s main products. The experiment involved placing an electric field probe inside the empty metal enclosure (no electronics inside) and applying 10 V/m using the IEC 61000-4-3 radiated RF immunity test system.

A few basic system components are frequently used to mitigate or suppress electromagnetic interference (EMI) in devices. As engineers and technicians involved in compliance engineering, it is important to know what these components are, what they do, how they’re most effective, and when they’re ineffective.

Before diving too deep into the nitty gritty of high frequency probing techniques, it’s imperative to understand a few basics, as described in the remaining portion of this article. The basics include probe calibration and null measurements and a description of the various types of voltage probes available, including their strengths and weaknesses.

This month’s article focuses on the value of non-traditional training courses. To be clear, when referring to non-traditional training courses, what is meant is anything that is not considered a traditional program like a two- or four-year degree program, a Master’s, or Ph.D. program, etc.

Introduction IEC 61000-4-6 is titled “Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) - Part 4-6: Testing and measurement techniques...