Using Error-Source Switching (ESS) Concept to Analyze the Conducted Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Immunity of Microcontrollers

This paper introduces a new concept, the error-source switching (ESS), for the electromagnetic immunity of microcontrollers. Under the concept of ESS, a microcontroller is a multiple-module IC. A functional module, named as the error source (ES), is the bottleneck for the immunity of microcontrollers. During the sweeping of the disturbance frequency in the RF immunity test, the ES switches between various functional modules. Each functional module has an effective frequency range. Through the theoretical analysis, the measurement and the simulation, this paper shows that the frequency behavior of the conducted RF immunity of microcontrollers can be correctly understood and reasonably simulated when and only when the ESS mechanism is considered. That conclusion provides a criterion on how to construct microcontroller models and the simulation environment in a logical way for immunity simulations.