ESD – Understand and Test for Compliance (Part I)

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) . is a very common, yet often overlooked problem that can plague electronic equipments in a mysterious way. ESD is like an invisible, mischievous gremlin that come and go un-noticed, until the related failures or malfunctions become apparent. Yet, ESD by its elusive but superfast characteristics and very high frequency spectrum definitely belong to the EMI family. Once understood, the solutions to it are not very different than those for the more classical interference problems, bearing in mind that we will be dealing with a frequency domain up to the GHz, where some EMI solutions are simply not appropriate.

Read more

EMC in Product Development (Part 3)

The concept phase – EMI risk analysis .  This article is a part of a series of texts that will deal with the EMC challenge in terms of project management and the practical EMC activities at different stages in the project flow.

Different companies all have their own way of describing their project flow, so to keep it simple we will use the labels as given in Figure 1. We can call it a generic project flow. The picture only describes the basic outline of the work packages. These articles will describe the actual practical work we want to do in the project to “make EMC work” in a time- and cost-efficient way. Each part of our series will fill in the details for each part piece by piece.

Read more

EMC in Product Development (Part 2)

Setting the EMC requirements . This article is a part of a series of texts that will deal with the EMC challenge in terms of project management and the practical EMC activities at different stages in the project flow. Different companies all have their own way of describing their project flow, so to keep it simple we will use the labels as given in Figure 1. We can call it a generic project flow. The picture only describes the basic outline of the work packages. These articles will describe the actual practical work we want to do in the project to “make EMC work” in a time- and cost-efficient way. Each part of our series will fill in the details for each part piece by piece.

Read more

Troubleshooting EMI (Part II, Susceptibility Problems)

Some simple hints . for identifying and fixing EMI troubles. This second part of our EMI Troubleshooting guidelines is devoted to investigation and cure of EMI susceptibility problems. Since, according to our former article (Ref.1) conducted tests are faster and easier to perform, we will concentrate on these and avoid more complex and expensive radiated susceptibility test set-ups. The first half of this article will address the situation where the equipment at stake is still in the plant or lab, at the end of its development phase or in an early stage of production. The second half will cover the more difficult cases where the faultly equipment is already in service, installed at some customer site.

Read more

EMC in Product Development (Part 1)

What is the electromagnetic environment? The EMC part of the prestudy .
This article is a part of a series of texts that will deal with the EMC challenge in terms of project management and the practical EMC activities at different stages in the project flow.

Read more

The Ten Commandments for EMC, part 6

One of the most important . measures to achieve good EMC characteristics is to bond all metallic (conducting) structures together with many wide connections. Connect metal to metal by as large area as possible, with good surface conductivity. These joined parts form a conductive equipotential structure, that act as a reference plane or ground for all electrical and electronic circuit in its vicinity. In practice, the apparatus body and the metal casing, forms this reference plane. In most cases, the ground planes in PCBs must also be connected to the reference plane to achieve the desired EMC properties.

Read more

Internet of Things: an IT Security Nightmare

Offprint from strategic outlook 7 . .Internet of Things (IoT) is the collective name given to products that contain electronics that have some form of connection to other systems, usually via the Internet. The number of cyberattacks involving IoT devices has increased in recent years. This, combined with a deteriorating security situation, presents a looming risk of major and wider cyberattacks in which IoT devices will be central. Sweden’s national security and system of total defence are built to a great extent on the resilience of critical societal functions. Many of these have Internet-connected systems that are partially based on IoT products, making them vulnerable to cyberattacks. These systems are clear targets for antagonists. To reduce the risk of serious cyberattacks capable of disrupting critical societal functions, Sweden should have a clear strategy on cybersecurity. Sweden should also take an active role in efforts to increase cybersecurity in commercial IoT products.

Read more

A survey of the existence of GPS interference in Europe

Introduction .  The European Union (EU) Horizon2020 project Standardisation of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Threat Reporting and Receiver Testing through International Knowledge Exchange, Experimentation and Exploitation (STRIKE3) is a new European initiative to support the increasing use of GNSS within safety, security, governmental and regulated applications. One of the objectives of STRIKE3 is the deployment and operation of an international GNSS interference monitoring network to capture the scale and dynamics of the problem, and to work with international GNSS partners to develop, negotiate, promote and implement standards for threat reporting and receiver testing. Both standards are missing across all civil application domains and are considered a barrier to the wider adoption and success of GNSS in the higher value markets.

Read more

Troubleshooting EMI (Part I, Emission Problems)

Some simple hints . for identifying and fixing EMI troubles. This article covers the essential aspects of a domain which is seldom addressed in current EMC litterature: «What to do when an equipment – or a whole system – is failing the tests or experiencing Interference (EMI) problems ?». Whatever we are dealing with a prototype at the end of its development phase, failing one or several EMC tests, or an already installed equipment that exhibit on-site problems, we face a situation that must be solved quickly, with an equipment that cannot be deeply modified.

Read more

EMC Challenges for Wireless Communications in Security & Safety Applications 

The use of wireless . technology is increasing rapidly in critical societal functions such as energy production, transport, logistics, banking and financial systems, and industrial and security applications – this despite the fact that civilian consumer wireless technology in general is very sensitive to both unintentional and intentional interference signals. Therefore Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) issues are highly important to address. Hitherto only military actors have been able to utilize or take advantage of this sensitivity effectively, but this ability is now spreading to civilian actors, thanks to sophisticated jamming equipment which is now sold openly and inexpensively via the Internet.

Read more