ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY (EMC)

By ZULFIQAR MIRANI

Electromagnetic Compatibility ( EMC ) essentially ensures proper working of an

electrical system when it is placed in an electromagnetic environment shared by other
electrical systems.

This means that conducted or radiated emissions from an electrical system are kept
within specified limits so that they may not degrade the performance of any other
electrical system placed in the same environment. In addition to this, the electrical system
must immune enough to the conducted or radiated emissions generated by other electrical
systems.

ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE (EMI)

Electromagnetic interference consists of any unwanted, spurious, conducted and /or

radiated signal of electrical origin that can cause unacceptable degradation of system or
an equipment performance.

The effects of EMI can range from minor nuisance to catastrophic consequences.
Appearance of ghosts or snow on TV screen, cross talk in telephones, buzzing of a car
radio while driving under a high tension transmission line are examples of minor
nuisance. EMI can also lead to serious consequences, such as, malfunctioning of medical
equipments while monitoring condition of patients, radio interference in aircrafts
communication system, firing of missile due un-warranted activation of its explosive
device etc.

Basic elements of an EMI situation

There are three essential elements of an EMI situation; they are:

1. EMI sources
2. EMI receptors
3. Coupling paths.

1. Source of EMI

Any device or apparatus that transmits, distributes, processes, or otherwise utilizes any
form of electrical energy can be a source of EMI. EMI sources can be classified as:

 conducted or radiated,
 natural or man made, and
 intentional or unintentional
EMI signals, those conducted via electrical conducting paths are wires and ground planes,
whereas radiated EMI signals have the form of electromagnetic waves transmitted
through free space from source to receptor.

Natural EMI sources are those associated with natural phenomenon like lighting,
radiation from galactic and cosmic sources, whereas man-made sources include all
electrical systems like electronic communication, power lines etc.

Electrical systems whose primary function depends upon radiated emissions are called
intentional radiators (for example: communication , navigation and radar system) where
as unintentional radiators are those systems which radiate radio frequency signals but
whose primary function is not to generate these signals.

2. EMI Receptors

The term receptor refers to the generic class of devices, equipment and/ or system that,
when exposed to EMI, either malfunction or degrade performance.

These EMI receptors may be natural or man-made. Natural receptors include humans,
animals & plants. Intense EM fields can damage the organic molecules of the body by
heating. All electrical system are example of man made receptors.

3. Coupling paths

There are four type of coupling paths may exist between an emitter and a receptor. They
are:

i. Common Impedance Coupling

ii. Capacitive Coupling
iii. Inductive Coupling
iv. Radiation Coupling

INTERSYSTEM EMI CONTROL TECHNIQUES

In order to control the intersystem EMI Techniques like frequency management, time
management, location management, direction management and shielding can be used.
Methods like filtering, shielding, proper wiring and grounding can be adopted.

INTRASYSTEM EMI CONTROL TECHNIQUES

Methods like filtering shielding, proper wiring and grounding can be adopted.

INTERFERENCE

In practical measurements electrical signals from the measured to measuring instrument

may be effected by a number of forms of interference. These interference are due to the
entrance of unwanted signals from the unrelated electrical circuits and fields into
measuring system. Protection of measuring systems from these interference is called
screening.

The Five major types of external interference signals are:

1. Capacitive (or electrical coupled) interference

2. Inductive (or magnetically coupled) interference
3. Electromagnetic interference (radiation coupling)
4. Conductively coupled interference
5. Ground loop interference

Capacitive (or Electrical Coupled) Interference

Although unconnected physically, nearby conductors are coupled electrically by the

capacitance between them (in the same way that the parallel plates of a capacitor are
coupled).

In measuring system, the object of capacitive interference is low level signal transducer
and low level signal carrying conductor. The sources of capacitive interference are
conductors that have large varying voltage, typically with little or no current flow.

Inductive Interference

Inductive interference stems from electromagnetic fields that are associate with current
carrying conductor. The current creates a magnetic field in the space surrounding in the
space. If the
current changes with time the magnetic field will also change. If there is closed
conducing path (loop) near by, the magnetic field that intercepts the loop will cause a
current to be induced and flow around the loop. The magnitude of induced current will
depends on the strength of the magnetic field, the frequency of its variation, and area of
the loop. In addition, the current will depend on the resistance of the loop. If the
resistance of the loop is high, the magnetic field will induce only insignificant small
currents. Inductively coupled interference can cause problems in high-impedance
measuring setups.

If low impedance loop is formed by a shield conductor and a portion of the ground plane
(i.e if the shield conductor is connected to ground at two different points), large currents
can be induced in this path.

Electromagnetic Interference

At high frequencies, a part of the energy associated with the fluctuating current or charge
in a conductor is radiated away from it in the form of electromagnetic radiation. This
phenomenon is specially used to generate radio waves for communication and radar
application. However, it has become common parlance to refer to any EM waves that
have frequencies comparable to radio or
radar waves as radio frequency (RF) waves, whether they are actually signals from radio
or radar transmitter or not.

Besides radio waves, there are many other sources (both manufactured and natural) that
produce
RF signals. How ever, in measurement system, all types of RF signals are considered to
be sources of unwanted EM interference as a result, sensitive circuit must be protected
from all RF signals no matter what their source might be.

Conductively Coupled Interference

Interference can also be caused by electrical fluctuations or signals that originate in other
electrical devices connected in the same circuit as the measuring instrument. Since such
interference signals are coupled to the measurement circuits directly through electrical
conductors (that is the wires or cables of the circuit), such interference is known as
conductively coupled interference.

Three of the most common causes of conductively coupled interference in measurement

systems are:
i. The presence of a common impedance ground path in the measurement system.
ii. Conductively coupled interference introduces into the system through the power
transformers of the measurement instrument.
iii. Power supplies that are incorrectly connected to parallel loads.

Ground Loop Interference

Ground loop interference are frequent and serious source of problems in many electronic
measurement systems. Ground loops are closed electrical paths in which the section of
the path consist of the ground wires of a system and ground plane. Ground loops are
created when ever the ground conductor of an electrical system is connected to the
ground plane at different points. Since the ground wires of most systems and the ground
plane are actually low impedance conducting paths, ground loops as a whole are paths of
low impedance.