Electromagnetic Compatibility Essentials

Why can’t I connect to WiFi? Why does my Bluetooth stop working when I use USB 3.0? Oh! I just sparked into my computer after sitting down; is it damaged now? All of these issues have to do with electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). International EMC experts David Pommerenke and Bernd Deutschmann break down situations that seem highly complex in order to highlight the causes of interference.

This course is designed to gain essential know-how in today’s world of very high frequencies. For instance, smartphone CPUs already work with clock frequencies above 3 GHz. But did you know that such fast switching disturbs other devices nearby? Such disturbances are either simply annoying or can become a real problem. As a consequence, international regulations exist which demand for emission and immunity tests before selling an electronic device.

The topic of EMC must be considered in all aspects of circuit design in order to reduce the number of prototypes. We would like you to gain an intuition for EMC with the help of lab examples. We emphasize basic physical principles and avoid highly complex mathematical derivations instead. After completion, a certificate will be awarded. We are already working on three follow-up courses to obtain a professional EMC certificate, backed by Graz University of Technology.

TU Graz offers more than 10 on-campus lectures on the subject of EMC, most of them in small laboratory groups. More than 10 full-time employees investigate electromagnetism in a variety of applications just in our research group only. We would like to share this expertise with the community, since EMC must be considered by all electronics engineers and project managers.

The FREE version of this course includes all material except final exam questions and the certificate. This is a self-paced course, so there are no weekly deadlines. You can join this class completely free of charge and purchase the certificate later in case you liked it. Give it a try and dive into the fascinating world of EMC.

What you'll learn

• Learn where these electromagnetic interferences (EMI) come from.
• Fundamental knowledge on how to keep them under control.
• Techniques such as the analysis in time and frequency domain.
• Noise travels in two modes: differential and common. Knowing in which mode the noise occurs opens doors to suppression (EMI filtering).
• Not only radiating fields matter, but electrostatic discharge (ESD) as well. How large are the voltages after walking on a carpet? How stressful are the discharges to my computer?
• And much more! (e.g. EMI receiver, lumped-element models, most important EMC standards)