Limit and use of near-field scan for platform RFI analysis

A near-field scan procedure for approximating the radio frequency (RF) current within an integrated circuit (IC) chip or printed circuit board (PCB) is suggested, and is examined for characterizing the radio frequency interference (RFI) of a mobile internet device research platform. The equivalent RF current obtained from the procedure serves as a model for the noise source and is used to estimate the near field distribution above a small micro processor. Comparison of the predicted near field distribution is made with measurements and the limitations of the approach is also discussed.