Fast interactive EMC analysis for design engineers

In most companies the first time you know you have an EMC problem is when the EMC testing laboratory rejects your design. You now have to analyse their findings, scrutinise your design, locate the offending circuit components and start a re-design/design modification cycle. This is expensive in both time and money. Some more enlightened companies have an EMC expert who will look at the design, often when it is in an almost complete state, and help engineers to overcome potential EMC related design problems. Again, this somewhat late in the design cycle to start identifying EMC related problems. This paper discusses an EMC simulator that has its origins in Bell Northern Research (BNR) that allows the circuit designer to make fast, interactive analysis of his/her design earlier in the design phase. It provides an intuitive graphical interface to visualise potential EMC problems during the layout and routing phases. Interactive what-if analysis can rapidly be performed to both understand the reason for the high levels of electromagnetic radiation as well as try out potential solutions to the problem