Expert Insights

This month's blog is pulled from the product safety playbook. It highlights a potential issue to avoid when considering an optocoupler's creepage distance when placed onto a printed circuit board (PCB).

Most engineers are familiar with near-field probes and that they are sensitive to E- or H-fields emanating from circuit boards, cables or enclosure seams. They are really the first order of business when evaluating a circuit board or system.

This article presents the derivation of the radiated far fields from a Hertzian dipole antenna above the ground plane using image theory.

It is now well known that testing for CDM ESD evaluation is becoming a bigger challenge. An alternate approach called capacitively coupled transmission line pulsing (CCTLP) offers advantages over standard field-induced CDM testing.

In large systems, such as big cabinets housing numerous electronic components, employing the near-field probe method can be time-consuming and, depending on the voltage level, potentially unsafe (for instance, when dealing with high-voltage circuits requiring isolation). In such scenarios, an alternative approach is necessary.

The Banana Skin columns were compiled by Keith Armstrong, of Cherry Clough Consultants Ltd, from items he found in various publications, and anecdotes and links sent in by the many fans of the column.

Patrick Andre looks at the potential risks of personal electronic devices interfering with aircraft systems and the efforts by industry groups to address this issue.

There is one important skill to develop, over and above all others, that makes life much easier, sets you on a path toward success, and increases your status as a true compliance professional.

Electricity meters and other similar devices have their own set of unique standards and requirements.

Let's use the basic tools and spectrum analyzer setup described in the last two months and use them to characterize an actual embedded processor board based on the Arduino design.