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Douglas Smith

Douglas Smith held an FCC First Class Radiotelephone licenseby age 16 and a General Class amateur radio license at age 12. He received a B.E.E.E. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1969 and an M.S.E.E. degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1970. In 1970, he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff. He retired in 1996 as a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff. From February 1996 to April 2000 he was Manager of EMC Development and Test at Auspex Systems in Santa Clara, CA. Mr. Smith currently is an independent consultant specializing in high frequency measurements, circuit/system design and verification, switching power supply noise and specifications, EMC, and immunity to transient noise. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a former member of the IEEE EMC Society Board of Directors. His technical interests include high frequency effects in electronic circuits, including topics such as Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), Electrostatic Discharge (ESD), Electrical Fast Transients (EFT), and other forms of pulsed electromagnetic interference. He also has been involved with FCC Part 68 testing and design, telephone system analog and digital design, IC design, and computer simulation of circuits. He has been granted over 15 patents, several on measurement apparatus. Mr. Smith has lectured at Oxford University, The University of California Santa Barbara, The University of California Berkeley, Vanderbilt University, AT&T Bell Labs, and internationally at many public and private seminars on high frequency measurements, circuit design, ESD, and EMC. He is author of the book High Frequency Measurements and Noise in Electronic Circuits. His very popular website, http://emcesd.com (www.dsmith.org), draws many thousands of visitors each month to see over 150 technical articles as well as other features. He also provides consulting services in general design, EMC, and transient immunity (such as ESD and EFT), and switching power supply noise. His specialty is solving difficult problems quickly, usually within a couple of days. His work has included digital and analog circuits in everything from large diesel powered machinery to IC chip level circuits. His large client base includes many well known large electronic and industrial companies as well as medium sized companies and start-up companies.

From This Author

Shielded vs. Unshielded Square Magnetic Field Loops for EMI/ESD Design and Troubleshooting

In this article, square unshielded wire loops are compared to shielded solutions including simple techniques to build them in your lab. Some examples are included to show that unshielded loops often work as well as shielded loops in some applications, especially for injecting signals into circuits.

Measuring Breakdown Voltage With an ESD Simulator

ESD simulators with specific characteristics can be used to precisely measure high voltage breakdown in circuits, helping identify equipment failures and compliance issues.

Destroying Electronic Components from Across the Room With ESD

(Today’s sensitive components are really sensitive!) Electronic components are getting smaller and more sensitive every...

Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Effects on Measurement Equipment – ESD Effects on Oscilloscopes

When debugging designs or making electrical measurements of noise, especially ESD, we often assume...

Effect of High Voltage Pulses on Resistors – ESD and EFT

Carbon composition resistors work very well under pulsed conditions, but are getting difficult to...
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Measuring Breakdown Voltage with an ESD Simulator

Measuring high voltage breakdown has many uses including tracking down the cause of equipment...

Measuring Capacitor Self-inductance and ESR

Technical Background The parasitic parameters of a capacitor, that is its equivalent series resistance (ESR)...

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