Model for estimating radiated emissions from a printed circuit board with attached cables due to Voltage-driven sources

Common-mode currents induced on cables attached to printed circuit boards (PCBs) can be a significant source of unintentional radiated emissions. This paper develops a model for estimating the amount of common-mode cable current that can be induced by the signal voltage on microstrip trace structures or heatsinks on a PCB. The model employs static electric field solvers or closed-form expressions to estimate the effective self-capacitances of the board, trace, and/or heatsink. These capacitances are then used to determine the amplitude of an equivalent common-mode voltage source that drives the attached cables. The model shows that these voltage-driven common-mode cable currents are relatively independent of the cable parameters and the trace or heatsink location when the PCB is small relative to the cable length and to a wavelength.