EMC - RF IMMUNITY

Hello everyone.

1.) I have an electronics board that has 10 wires coming out that gets conn ected to an end users board with an Ethernet type cable. During our Elect romagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Testing for the RF Immunity Testing there is a disturbance of our system around 100-120 MHz and 1 GHz ?2.7 GHz. (Some of the values returned from the Analog to Digital converter of our microcontroller show a noise disturbance.)

2.) When a ferrite core clamp is connected over the entire cable the proble m goes away.

3.) When the grounds and shield wires of the cable are pulled out of the ca ble and the ferrite core clamp is only applied to these wire (just 4 wires out of the 10) the problem also goes away.

4.) There seems to be something going on when we apply a common-mode chock to these ground / return paths.

5.) What is the best solution for something like this if we want on on-boar d solution on the PCB?

Thanks.

Mike

Reply to
eeglory1234
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Sounds like you have a resonance at those 2 frequencies

For the lower one and possibly also the higher one, add ferrite beads to each line:

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Cheers

Klaus

Reply to
Klaus Kragelund

If the BOM cost is very critical you have to take the time and find the sources, the root causes, and fix those.

If cost is not so critical but time is pressing there are common mode choke arrays you can place on the board such as this:

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It depends on your signals and how much you were over the EMC limits for each peak. Got to make sure you aren't coupling lines that aren't supposed to and also not dampen diff-mode too much if you have more than two lines for a signal connection. If unsure you could post a schematic.

Last but not least lots of those problems happen when a board does not have a proper and complete gound plane or when bypassing isn't done shortest path. I have had cases where introducing such a complete plane almost wiped out all EMC problems at a client. Mostly the radiated stuff.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

PCB mounted CM Choke on the lines at the point where they come onto the PCB . Wide clearance area on the EMI dirty side of the CM choke to any other t races. Keep things symmetrical as far as trace/space & lengths on the EMI dirty side, and as short as possibly to the wires or connectors involved. Avoid pathways for the RF to jump around the CM choke because other compone nts or wires are nearby. Cable shields go directly to metal chassis ground at the point of entry into the box. Never bundle EMI dirty wires with oth er wires, until AFTER they have passed through or EMI filter. If the lines involved are DC or low frequency, you can add 100nF bypass capacitors. If lines involved are high speed signal the values used for bypassing will ha ve to remain very small. Differential signals can get their own two-line C H choke in the 50-500uH range. DC lines can get CM chokes with a higher in ductance, although testing in your case did not reveal and issues below 100 Mhz. For extreme EMI robustness, DC signals can be given two stages of CM choke. The first stage being low inductance and knocks out VHF/UHF and abo ve, while the second stage being high inductance attenuates HF and lower.

Many times I see products being EMI tested, where the set-up is ill conceiv ed. You can't ignore the need to apply extensive EMI filtering in situ, to any/all cables that are not normally part of the product, but which you ar e using to monitor or power the DUT (device under test). Simple things ofte n trip up most engineers. A battery source is a far better choice than a la b power supply for example.

Reply to
Terry

OP sounds like you have, what audio engineers call the "Pin 1 problem'

Google that.

m
Reply to
makolber

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Reply to
eeglory1234

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