A dual-bridge inverter approach to eliminating common-mode voltagesand bearing and leakage currents

This paper presents a dual-bridge inverter approach to eliminate the motor common-mode voltage and resulting bearing and leakage currents. The novel dual-bridge inverter is controlled to generate balanced excitation of the induction motor under pulsewidth modulation (PWM) inverter operation. Theoretical analysis, simulation results, and experimental results are presented to verify this concept     

The effectiveness of an image plane in reducing radiated emissions

A study of the effectiveness of a finite-sized image plane in reducing the amplitude of the radiated emissions due to electric currents flowing near the plane is presented. The method of moments is utilized to examine how well a finite-sized image plane approximates an infinite plane and to analyze the effects of the dimensions of the image plane on the radiated emissions. A 2-D and 3-D analysis is included with similar conclusions drawn in both cases. In addition, measured data are presented which confirm the results of the numerical study     

Modelling and measurement of radiated emissions from printedcircuit boards

An analytical model for the radiated emission from printed circuit boards based on multi-conductor transmission line theory is presented. The model includes the width of the ground plane, the thickness of the substrate and the size of the ground patch. Comparison of the theoretical results with measurements shows good general agreement     

Effect of logic family on radiated emissions from digital circuits

Radiated emissions were measured for simple digital circuits designed to operate with various logic families. Emissions in the near and far field were found to depend both on the circuit layout and the choice of logic family. However, the difference in peak emissions between any two logic families was found to be independent of the circuit layout. The greatest difference in peak emissions was between high-speed 74ACT logic and low-speed 4000 CMOS logic devices, with a mean value of approximately 20 dB. Emissions from a more complex circuit were compared with the measurements on simple loop circuits. Test circuits were used to measure the propagation delay, the rise and fall times, the maximum operating frequency and the transient switching currents between two successive logic gates for each logic family. Empirical formulas have been derived that relate relative peak emissions to these switching parameters. It is hoped that these will assist designers to assess the effect of choice of logic family on electromagnetic compatibility     

A closed-form expression for estimating radiated emissions from the power planes in a populated printed circuit board

An expression for the maximum intensity of radiated emissions from a rectangular power bus structure has been derived based on an analytical cavity-resonator model. The effect of components mounted on the board is modeled by modifying the propagation constant of the waves within the power bus structure. The radiated field intensity is calculated using the equivalent magnetic current around the edges of the power bus structure together with the modified propagation constant. Measurements of a populated test board show that the derived closed-form expression estimates the level of the maximum radiation intensity with reasonable accuracy.     

Moment-method determination of the surface currents and fields radiated by rectangular microstrip patch-antennas

A quantitative solution is presented of the surface currents and the corresponding fields generated in free space by electrically thin microstrip patch-antennas of rectangular configuration. Use is made of a versatile analytical tool known as the method of moments, in which the surface current density is approximated by a series expansion involving piece wise linear basis functions and weighted superposition coefficients which are to be determined. It is shown that when the governing integro-diflerential equations are reformulated in matrix form involving generalized network parameters, the desired current distribution emerges in a simple compact form. A remarkable feature of the result of the present analysis is the fact that the field induced in the substrate is due to a finite charge distribution rather than the previously implied phenomenon, viz. the influence of an infinite charge distribution. Indeed, the charge distribution responsible is directly derivable from the time-harmonic continuity equation. All numerical results displayed are based on the use of plane-wave irradiation and the paper includes a discussion of certain practical feed arrangements as well as some practical applications. Results are presented in graphical forms within the frequency limits 1157-1237 MHz for two different sizes of the conducting patch.     

Electromagnetic performance of innovative lightweight shields toreduce radiated emissions from PCBs

An innovative shielding concept to reduce radiated emissions from components and tracks on printed-circuit boards is proposed. The new shield is made of a polycarbonate foil, which is coated by a thin film of nickel (only 50 nm in thickness) and by a 5-μm thick layer of tin, and successively thermoformed. The innovative characteristics of such a high-technology shield are the extremely light weight, the high thermoformability, good shielding performance against both far-field and near field sources, low production costs, low installation costs, minimum occupied volume. The mechanical, chemical, and electromagnetic performance of the new shield has been characterized experimentally. Different bonding solutions are tested in order to optimize the shielding performance of the screening cover installed on a conductive ground plane     

Measuring the radiated emissions from a family of microprocessorsusing a 1-GHz TEM cell

This paper presents a series of measurements of the radiated emissions from 8 and 16 bit microprocessors. The radiated emissions were measured using a 1-GHz TEM cell that incorporates the device under test (DUT) into the cell structure itself. For the 16 bit processor, samples from each of the manufacturer's identified process corners were measured and compared. Two separate fabrication lines were compared for process variability. The spatial location on the wafer was measured for emissions variation. In addition, emissions were measured for a 16 bit processor as a function of the operating temperature. Finally a comparison was made between discrete implementations of a module digital core and the same circuit implemented as an multichip module (MCM)     

Effect of a finite ground plane on radiated emissions from acircular loop antenna

A thin-wire circular loop antenna located above a perfectly conducting square plate is analyzed by a physical optics (PO) method. The electric field integral equation (EFIE) is solved using the method of moments to compute the current on the loop in the presence of an infinite ground plane whereby the edge effects of the plate on the loop current are neglected. The current distribution on the loop is obtained from a full-wave Fourier series analysis which requires no matrix inversion. We then use physical optics to compute the current induced on the plate in terms of the incident magnetic-field intensity. Our aim is to compare the PO solution with results obtained from a mixed wire-patch MOM code and explore its accuracy as a function of plate size and loop height. The benefits are considerable reduction in analytical and computational efforts and much less CPU time     

A genetic algorithm based method for source identification andfar-field radiated emissions prediction from near-field measurements forPCB characterization

A new method for predicting the far-field radiated emissions and for finding the radiation sources of a device from near-field measurements is presented. It is based on the substitution of the original device by an equivalent set of elemental dipoles, placed over the main radiating sources, which radiate the same near-field (and therefore, far-field). This equivalent set of elemental dipoles is generated using a genetic algorithm. From the position and type of the equivalent elemental dipoles, the position of the actual radiating sources is determined. Since the field produced by an elemental dipole is known, the far-field radiation of the actual radiating source can be calculated. The new method has been tested using synthetic data and real measurements from the radiation generated by a modem PCB demonstrating its viability and usefulness     

Theoretical and experimental characterization of transientelectromagnetic fields radiated by electrostatic discharge (ESD)currents

The problem of the evaluation of the electromagnetic (EM) field radiated by an electrostatic discharge (ESD) current is examined, and an efficient numerical code for the evaluation of the radiated field is developed. The considered radiating structures, a monopole and a loop, are analyzed in the time domain using a modified electric field integral equation (EFIE). A modification of the integral equation was introduced in order to take into account the reflection of the incident pulse at the input terminals of the antenna, when fed by a transmission line. The reflected wave is very significant and its evaluation is fundamental for the comparison of theoretical and experimental data. The ESD current flowing along the wire is determined using the method of moments in time domain (MoMTD). From the knowledge of the transient current, the radiated EM field is evaluated by a standard technique. The developed model is the first stage of a project for the characterization of the measurement environment during an ESD test. All numerical results are validated by measurements and good agreement is shown     

On the measurement of common-mode rejection ratio

In this brief, several commonly used measurement configurations for common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) are analyzed and compared with the definition; their advantages and limitations are also discussed. Finally, an improved measurement setup is proposed to characterize CMRR more accurately according to its definition over wider frequency range.     

A new modulation method to reduce common-mode voltages in multilevel inverters

This paper proposes a new modulation strategy for multilevel inverters, which selects voltage vectors that generate zero common-mode voltage in the load, working at low switching frequency. Experimental results confirm that the method is highly effective and simple to implement in a modern microprocessor. The voltage distortion (total harmonic distortion), the number of commutations, and the linearity are also studied. Finally, it is concluded that the proposed strategy is highly suited for inverters with a high number of levels.     

Elimination of common-mode voltage in three-phase sinusoidal powerconverters

This paper presents an active solution to a common-mode voltage created by typical three-phase inverters. It is shown that the addition of a fourth leg to the bridge of a three-phase inverter eliminates the common-mode voltage to ground created by the modulation of the inverter. An appropriate four-phase LC filter is inserted between the inverter and the load in order to create sinusoidal output line-to-line voltage. A simple modification of the modulation strategy is implemented for the four-phase inverter to achieve a three-phase wye-output neutral-to-ground voltage which is equal to zero at all times for an ideal inverter. The modulation strategy thereby completely eliminates the common-mode potential produced by traditional modulation techniques with traditional three-phase inverter topologies     

High dielectric constant thin film EBG power/ground network for broad-band suppression of SSN and radiated emissions

We experimentally demonstrated the great advantages of a high dielectric constant thin film electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) power distribution network (PDN) for the suppression of power/ground noises and radiated emissions in high-performance multilayer digital printed circuit boards (PCBs). Five-layer test PCBs were fabricated and their scattering parameters measured. The power plane noise and radiated emissions were measured, investigated and related to the PDN impedance. This successfully demonstrated that the bandgap of the EBG was extended more than three times, covering a range of hundreds of MHz using a 1-cm /spl times/ 1-cm EBG cell, the SSN was reduced from 170 mV to 10 mV and the radiated emission was suppressed by 22 dB because of the high dielectric constant thin film EBG power/ground network.     

Passive cancellation of common-mode noise in power electronic circuits

It is well known that common-mode (CM) conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) is caused by the common-mode current flowing through the parasitic capacitance of transistors, diodes, and transformers to ground in the power circuit. Because of the potential for interference with other systems it is necessary to attenuate this noise. Ordinarily this is accomplished by using a magnetic choke across the input power lines, resulting in penalties to the overall size and cost of the completed system. In order to lessen the requirement for this magnetic choke, there has been a desire to introduce noise cancellation techniques to the area of EMI. This text introduces a method of canceling the common-mode EMI by using a compensating transformer winding and a capacitor. Compared with other cancellation techniques, it is much simpler and requires no additional transistors and gate-drive circuitry since it merely adds a small copper winding and a small capacitor. By using this technique the size of the EMI filter can be reduced, especially for applications requiring high currents. In this paper, the new method for passive noise cancellation is applied to many popular converter and inverter topologies. The method, results, and ramifications of this technique are presented in order of appearance.     

A rigorous model for radiated emission prediction in PCB circuits

The problem of the radiated emission from printed circuit boards, (PCBs) is theoretically and experimentally investigated. Differential mode and common mode currents are separately studied by means of a rigorous method based on proper Green's functions. The solution of the integral equations for the current distribution, derived from the problem formulation, is numerically achieved by the method of moments. Simulated results are in good agreement with measurements. The final products of this study are masks that establish the maximum allowable currents or voltage values as a function of frequency to comply with CISPR regulation     

A spatiotemporal representation of the electromagnetic field radiated by short-pulse superwideband antennas

It is shown that two approaches can efficiently be applied to calculate impulse responses of antennas radiating superwideband signals. The simultaneous use of these approaches makes it possible to lucidly describe the operation of certain antennas and substantially simplify the calculations. The impulse responses of some short-video-pulse scanning array antennas and the shapes of radiated signals are calculated.     

A uniform asymptotic evaluation of the field radiated from collinear array antennas

A uniform asymptotic representation of the electromagnetic field radiated from arbitrary collinear array antennas is presented. The asymptotic field is obtained applying the saddle-point technique to the radiation integrals after expressing the current excited along the array axis by means of a Fourier spectral representation. The resulting electromagnetic field is expressed in terms of propagating and evanescent truncated Floquet waves (FWs). The leading asymptotic term of the FWs exhibits an optical behavior and is responsible for the slow decay of the array near-field, which can be described as cylindrical in character. The transition toward the spherical wave propagation regime is due to the interference of the cylindrical field with the relevant scattered field from the array truncations, while the reactive energy storage is due to the evanescent FWs, as well as to the progressive inductive and progressive electrostatic FWs excited close the antenna axis. Using the asymptotic field representation, prediction formulas for the spatial locations where the array near-field exhibits peak deviation from the cylindrical decay, and where the transition from cylindrical to spherical wave propagation regime takes place, have been derived. The proposed analytical technique can be adopted to analyze the spatial field distributions and the radiation mechanisms of periodic and nonperiodic linear arrays.