Annual Chicago IEEE EMC MiniSymposium   
 at the Holiday Inn, 860 West Irving Park Rd., Itasca, Il. 60143  Note NEW location!

8:00am to 4:30pm 

This is a two-speaker event, and guaranteed to sell out quickly.  

First come-first served on this event, sign up ASAP for this once in a life-time event! 

..Four separate presentations include..

" The Ground Myth "

The term "ground" is probably the most misused and misunderstood term in EMC engineering, and in fact, in all of circuit design.  Ground is considered to be a zero potential region with zero resistance and zero impedance at all frequencies.  This is just not the case in practical high-speed designs.  The one thing that should be remembered whenever the term "ground" is used, is that "Ground is a place where potatoes and carrots thrive"! By keeping this firmly in mind, many of the causes of EMC problems would be eliminated.  This presentation discusses the origin of the word “ground”, what we really mean when we use the term “ground” and how to optimize our designs to achieve the over all goals for our reference strategy.

" Decoupling PCB's for EMC and Functionality in the Real World "

Decoupling of power and ground-reference planes is an important issue for both EMI emissions control and for circuit functionality.  This topic has generated a lot of technical papers, and controversy.  While there has been a lot of attention on this topic, there is still significant confusion about the best strategy for decoupling.  This talk focuses on the sources of noise that the decoupling capacitors are intended to control, and the physics involved in the noise propagation, and how to properly analysis the decoupling capacitor performance.  The analysis  must be performed in BOTH the time domain and the frequency domain.  The frequency domain analysis is a steady state analysis, and will determine resonances, which are most useful for EMI emissions analysis.  The time-domain analysis is a transient analysis and will help determine how well the current is delivered to the IC, and ultimately, how large (or small) the generated noise pulse will become.    Real-world examples of measurements, as well as computer simulations are used to demonstrate the optimal decoupling strategy

" Using real-time spectral analysis to visualize, measure, and troubleshoot EMI signals in a completely different way "

You can’t find or fix what you can’t see! Troubleshooting and localizing intermittent signals or multiple layers of broadband and narrowband signals can be frustrating even for the most seasoned EMC troubleshooter or RF engineer. In this presentation Lee will discuss the capabilities of different types of spectral analysis technologies, and then demonstrate how real-time analysis can literally make previously-hidden signals leap into plain view.  His presentation will include live, real-time measurements of realistic intermittent, broadband, narrowband sources such as switching power supplies, PWM motor drives, digital peripherals, as well as Bluetooth and class D audio amplifiers.  Even If you have already heard or read about real-time spectral analysis, this is a great chance to see in person why engineers say “wow, did you see that!” when seeing it for the first time in person

"  Practical RF measurement and probing tools & techniques for EMC troubleshooting and RF test maintenance "

Lee will sharing the secrets of some of his favorite EMC sleuthing tools that he has been using over the past 30 years to uncover the most elusive EMI problems. He’ll discuss and demonstrate a number of different types of commercially available miniature noise injectors, handheld near-field probes, current probes, voltage probes, as well as their theory of operation. For engineers more interested in measurement and test, Lee will also describe and demo how you can put together a simple return loss test setup that can identify hidden or emerging failures in RF cables, adapters, and attenuators. For EMC engineers and labs who already have access to a spectrum analyzer with an internal tracking generator, this is a great way to leverage existing equipment.  You won’t want to miss this practical session packed with recommendations on practical tools and techniques