EMC, Safety
Compliance & Design Courses
for 2007

 

Designing for compliance means lower costs and faster time to market.

This series of standalone courses gives you the practical techniques that you need to maintain or improve your effectiveness as an engineering designer or manager in any area that uses electronic technology

 

Overview

Course Outlines for 2007

Designing for EMC Compliance 

Advanced PCB Design for EMC and Signal Integrity

Some Advanced EMC Issues

Complying with the new EMC Directive, plus updates on some other EU Directives

Designing electrical products for safety compliance

 

More Information

Download the 2007 Brochure (600k pdf)

Use new electronic technologies and compete effectively in global markets

Participants will receive

Keith Armstrong Resume

Registration and Booking Form

 

Presented by Keith Armstrong, a practising EMC & electronic design engineer, well-known author of EMC articles and textbooks, and expert in cost-effective EMC and safety, design and management, chair of the IET’s Working Group on EMC and Functional Safety. Keith is an articulate and lively presenter and received excellent reviews for his very popular visits to Australia & New Zealand in 2000, 2004 and 2006.

 

Developments in electronic technologies and their applications create increasing challenges to design/development costs, timescales, unit manufacturing costs, reliability, safety; and increase exposure to warranty costs, penalty charges, liability claims, fines or banning from major markets, and other financial risks.

Don’t let a $2000 test become a $50,000 redesign!!

 

Practical methods – Plain English – Immediate financial benefits

May-July 2007

Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Auckland & Christchurch

 

Use new technologies effectively
to grow in global markets

These up-to-date courses provide very valuable information for electronic, mechanical, PCB and safety engineers; design, production and QA managers; to help them comply with legal requirements, remain competitive and reduce financial risks as electronic technologies continue to advance

The reliability problems experienced by Victoria’s speed detection cameras, Sydney’s train system and city building control systems, underscore the importance of good EMC design.

This up-to-date series of stand-alone ½, 1 and 2-day courses, describes practical techniques for saving time and cost and reducing non-compliance and financial risks, for new or upgraded products, systems and installations.

 

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Synopsis of each course

 

Designing for EMC Compliance                                                

2 days: Mondays and Tuesdays

A practical grounding in the EMC techniques that technology developments have made essential for time-to-market, compliance, reliability and low warranty costs. This course is highly recommended for those involved in any aspect of the design or testing of electrical/electronic products, systems and installations.

Not your usual EMC design course. Regulatory issues are not covered here – the focus is on the basic EMC design techniques required for good emission and immunity performance, in practical detail, with very little theory or maths.

Includes techniques that developments in ICs and semiconductors are making increasingly necessary for all electronic designs.

It is based on the course that Keith has taught to post-graduate students on the Electronic Instrumentation Systems MSc course at the University of Manchester, UK, since 2002.

Who should attend?

  • All electronic designers and their managers
    • All industry areas including: medical, consumer, IT, telecommunications, industrial instrumentation & control, professional audio and video, railway, marine, automotive OEM, military, aerospace
  • An introduction for new engineers, a refresher for experienced personnel
  • Relevant for all electrical/electronic applications

Learn how to…

  • Reduce development timescales and time-to-market
  • Ease regulatory compliance
  • Help products be more reliable for lower warranty costs and increased customer satisfaction
  • Reduce the financial risks of new product design/development

Skills required

  • Familiarity with circuit (hardware) design, PCBs/PWBs and other electronic assembly and interconnection techniques
  • Plain English is used, with a small amount of very easy maths

Contents

  • What EMI can occur, how it can affect hardware and software
  • Saving time and money with good EMC practices
  • Digital design for EMC
  • Analogue design for EMC
  • Switch-mode power conversion design for EMC
  • Communications design for EMC
  • Choice of components for EMC
  • EMC techniques for interconnections
  • EMC filtering
  • EMC shielding (to GHz)
  • Basics of PCB design and layout for EMC
  • Suppressing surges
  • Suppressing electrostatic discharge (ESD)
  • Suppressing electromechanical devices
  • Suppressing transducers
  • Suppressing harmonic emissions
  • Suppressing emissions of voltage fluctuations
  • Immunity to mains power quality issues: sags, swells, three-phase unbalance, dips, dropouts, interruptions (short and long), rapid voltage fluctuations, frequency variations, harmonic distortion, interharmonic distortion
  • Some useful references

 

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Advanced PCB Design for EMC and Signal Integrity                    

1 day: Wednesdays

Semiconductor technology advances make it essential to deal with EMC at PCB-level to achieve signal integrity, low cost, and to get to market quickly. These techniques….

Relevant for: electronic and PCB designers in all industry areas including: medical, consumer, IT, telecommunications, industrial instrumentation & control, professional audio and video, railway, marine, automotive OEM, military, aerospace.

As advances in semiconductor technology result in semiconductors that are both noisier and more susceptible at the same time – and as product functionality and cost pressures increase whilst development timescales reduce – taking care of signal integrity and EMC during the design of the PCB is becoming an essential competitive tool.

Controlling EMC in the PCB costs less, and is easier than at any other level of assembly – reducing timescales and unit manufacturing costs.

Companion textbook available: “EMC for Printed Circuit Boards - Basic and Advanced Design and Layout Techniques”, Keith Armstrong, 2007.

Who should attend?

  • Hardware and PCB designers, and their managers, involved with analogue, digital, switch-mode and/or RF design
  • Relevant for all electrical/electronic applications

Learn how to…

  • Reduce size/cost by reducing/eliminating enclosure shielding
  • Reduce interference to/from wireless communications (voice or data), and to GPS
  • Make high-speed clocks, Gb/s serial data and high-power DSP work well and have good EMC
  • Reduce time to market, compliance costs and warranty costs
  • Reduce the financial risks of using new technologies (e.g. ICs made on 65nm silicon processes, chip-scale packaging, etc.)

Skills required

  • Hardware designers and managers: familiarity with EMC and/or signal integrity concepts
  • PCB designers and managers: familiarity with layout techniques
  • Plain English is used, with some easy maths

Course contents

The EMC techniques now generally required for all PCBs:

  • Design techniques to save time and money
  • Segregation
  • Interface analysis, filtering, and suppression
  • 0V and power planes
  • PCB-chassis bonding
  • Power supply decoupling
  • Transmission line techniques
  • Layer stacking
  • Some useful references and sources

Advanced PCB design and layout for EMC:

  • When do we need to use advanced PCB techniques?
  • Silicon trends and their implications
  • Rules of thumb, approximations, simulations
  • Virtual design for SI and EMC
  • Advanced segregation
  • PCB-level shielding up to GHz
  • Advanced interface filtering and suppression
  • Advanced PCB-chassis bonding
  • Advanced planes
  • The totally shielded PCB assembly
  • Advanced decoupling
  • Buried capacitance
  • Advanced transmission lines
  • Differential transmission lines up to 10Gb/s
  • Advanced layer stacking
  • Microvia (high density interconnect) PCB technology
  • Some final tricks
  • Some useful contacts, sources, references

 

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Some Advanced EMC Issues                    

 ½ day: Thursday mornings

  1. Adding WLAN/radio and GPS modules to products
  2. Heatsink design for EMC
  3. Close-field probing for emissions and immunity

Who should attend?

  • All electronic designers, EMC test engineers and their managers
    • All industry areas including: medical, consumer, IT, telecommunications, industrial instrumentation & control, professional audio and video, railway, marine, automotive OEM, military, aerospace

           

  • Relevant for all electrical/electronic applications

Learn how to…

  • Add GPS and wireless functions to products without problems
  • Prevent EMC problems from heatsinks
  • Make and use low-cost close-field probes for a wide variety of time-and-cost-saving emission and immunity purposes

Skills required

  • Familiarity with circuit (hardware/system) design, PCBs/PWBs and other electronic assembly, packaging and interconnection techniques
  • Plain English is used, with a small amount of very easy maths

Contents

 Adding WLAN/radio and GPS modules to products
Many manufacturers have had immense and costly problems when adding wireless and/or GPS functions to existing products. This practical course helps you avoid their mistakes.
GPS, GSM, GPRS, CDMA-2000, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11), EDGE, 3G (UMTS), Bluetooth, ZigBee, etc.

 Heatsink design for EMC
Heatsinks are becoming a major source of emissions from microprocessors and the power transistors in switch-mode power converters. This course reveals practical techniques for suppressing them.

 Close-field probing for emissions and immunity
Close-field probing is a very low-cost but very powerful technique that is used by all EMC experts. It can be used to save time/cost and reduce financial risks in the following areas…

  • Proof of design principle
  • Product design and component selection
  • Product development
  • Fixing problems to help pass compliance tests
  • QA for continuing compliance in serial manufacture
  • Maintaining EMC despite software upgrades and design modifications to the product
  • Helping ensure EMC for systems and installations
  • Helping maintain EMC in maintenance, repair, upgrades, and modifications to equipment, systems and installations

 

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Complying with the new EMC Directive, plus updates on some other EU Directives    

½ day: Thursday afternoons

This course provides detailed guidance on complying with the NEW EMC Directive 2004/108/EC, which comes into force on 20th July 2007.

It also provides brief updates on…

The proposed second edition of the Low Voltage Directive (LVD, 73/23/EEC)

(Safety of electrical/electronic products and equipment, significant changes.)

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE Directive, 2002/96/EC)

(Take back products and recycle them, keep records.)

Restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS Directive, 2002/95/EC)

(No lead, even in solder, plus other restrictions. Could require products to be redesigned.)

Exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) for the general public (1999/519/EC), and for workers (2004/40/EC).  EMF compliance is now a requirement for household appliances to which IEC/EN 60335-1 applies.

(Measure EMFs and keep them below limits.)

The new EMC Directive 2004/108/EC comes into force on 20th July 2007 and replaces 89/336/EC. A detailed discussion of its new requirements forms the main part of this course. The remainder of the course deals more briefly with some updated and new EU Directives.

European Union (EU) Directives, e.g. for CE compliance, are constantly being improved and added to, and legal access to the EU single market relies upon keeping abreast of these changes.

It is important to be aware of these changes before they become mandatory, so that the necessary design changes can be incorporated during the normal design and revision processes as well as to ensure that the latest standards are applied, to save time and money and maintain market presence.

Who should attend?

  • All electrical/electronic designers and their managers
    • All industry areas including: CE compliance, medical, consumer, IT, telecommunications, industrial instrumentation & control, professional audio and video, railway, marine, automotive OEM, military, aerospace.

  • Relevant for all electrical/electronic manufacturers exporting to any of the 27 member countries of the EU
     

Learn about…

  • Recent developments in European (EU) Directives - CE Marking
  • Key issues will be highlighted, guidance provided

Skills required

  • Some familiarity with existing EU Directives will help, but is not essential

Contents

 Detailed discussion of how to comply with the new 2nd edition of the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive, 2004/108/EC, from 20th July 2007 (Technical documentation file required for all products, TCF route no longer needs a Competent Body)

 The proposed second edition of the Low Voltage Directive (LVD), 73/23/EEC (Electrical safety, significant changes)

 Exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) for the general public: 1999/519/EC, and for workers: 2004/40/EC (Measure EMFs from products and keep them below limits)
 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), 2002/96/EC (Take back products, recycle them, keep records)

 Restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS), 2002/95/EC (No lead, even in solder, plus other restrictions on materials. Could require redesign of existing products.)

 

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Designing for Safety of Electrical Products, and for LVD Compliance                      

1 day: Fridays

A practical grounding in the safety assessment, design and testing techniques required for compliance with Australian, European and international safety standards such as IEC/EN/AS-NZS 60950, 61010, 60601, 60335 and safety laws such as the EU’s Low Voltage Directive (LVD), Product Liability and General Product Safety Directives, and Australian/NZ A-tick and electrical safety regulations.

This course covers hazard analysis and risk assessment; compliance with Australian, European and international safety standards – including the proposed second edition of the EU LVD; and practical safety design techniques to prevent electric shock, fire, explosion, burns, etc. It is not based on any individual IEC or EN standards, but is relevant for all of them.

Who should attend?

  • All electrical/electronic designers and their managers
    • All electrical/electronic designers and their managers, in all industry areas including: medical, consumer, IT, telecommunications, industrial instrumentation & control, professional audio and video, railway, marine, automotive OEM, military, aerospace
  • An introduction for new engineers, a refresher for experienced personnel
  • Relevant for all electrical/electronic applications

Learn how to…

  • Reduce development timescales and time-to-market
  • Ease regulatory compliance
  • Help products be more reliable for lower warranty costs and increased customer satisfaction
  • Reduce the financial risks of new product design/development
  • Comply with the relevant safety standards, reduce risks of fines or banning from major markets
  • Reduce personal and company exposure to product liability lawsuits

Skills required

  • Familiarity with electrical or electronic design
  • Plain English is used, with a small amount of very easy maths

Contents

  • What do we mean by safe?
  • Doing hazards analysis and risk assessments, including brainstorming (especially for foreseeable use/misuse)
  • Non-CE marking safety directives
  • Complying with the Low Voltage Directive
  • New EMF requirements
  • Using the most relevant safety standards
  • Single-fault safety
  • Electrical shock hazards
  • Energy hazards
  • Fire hazards
  • Heat related hazards
  • Mechanical hazards
  • Other hazards
  • Choosing and using components
  •  Wiring, supply and construction
  • Markings and manuals
  • Type testing (testing the design)
  • Routine tests in serial manufacture
  • Special national conditions
  • Good safety engineering techniques not yet standardised
  • Design and test for functional safety
  • EMC for functional safety
  • Some safety resources

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Use new electronic technologies

and compete effectively in global markets

Integrated circuit (IC) and power-switching semiconductor silicon feature sizes continue to shrink year-on-year, providing huge benefits for product and system functionality and cost. The present challenge is to use ICs with feature sizes down to 65nm, and silicon technologies at 45nm are already being developed.

There are very powerful economic drivers forcing us to use ICs with ever-smaller feature sizes, but the inevitable downside of this is continually worsening signal integrity and degraded EMC performance, for both emissions and immunity. This means that EMC emissions at high frequencies are increasing, and susceptibility is worsening. The parallel trend to higher clock and power-switching frequencies also increases emissions, whilst the trend to lower d.c. voltages and the use of co-located WLAN transmitters also worsens immunity.

Existing products are not exempt, as IC manufacturers convert their existing product lines to use ‘smaller’ silicon technologies, (to make more money for themselves). This is known as a ‘mask shrink’ or ‘die shrink’ and has cost some product manufacturers millions of US dollars in re-engineering existing products because of the EMC problems it causes.

The added functionality and lower cost of the new IC and semiconductor devices creates a great many exciting new possibilities for products and services. This encourages the use of modern electronic technologies in areas where there is little or no relevant experience, increasing financial risks. The use of wireless communications is particularly fraught with risks.

The increase in risks is especially true as modern electronics penetrate safety-related areas from vehicles and transport infrastructure through industrial automation, medical and healthcare, to household appliances and toys. The risks are further compounded as wireless devices proliferate.

All this has a negative effect on design/development costs, and timescales, regulatory compliance costs, unit manufacturing costs, reliability and safety – hence increased exposure to warranty costs, penalty charges, product liability claims, being fined or banned by major markets due to non-compliance, and other financial risks.

Benefiting from modern electronic technologies requires its electrical, mechanical and PCB designers, plus its design, production and QA managers, to keep updating their knowledge and skills to control signal integrity, EMC and safety – exactly what these up-to-date very practical courses provide.

 

 

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Participants will receive the following documents:

- 19 EMC guide booklets by REO (UK) Ltd

- 23 of Keith’s excellent articles on EMC, on:

Design techniques for EMC
D-I-Y EMC Testing
EMC for Systems and Installations
EMC for Functional Safety
How the new EMC Directive applies to ‘fixed installations’ and equipment supplied to them

- The new EMC Directive and it’s invaluable guide

- The UK's new EMC Regulations and guide

 

 

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Keith Armstrong

BSc(Elec Eng), Upper Second Class Honours, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, UK, 1972
Member of IEE (now IET): 1977
UK Chartered Engineer: 1978
Group 1 European Engineer: 1988

Wide experience in electronic product design and project management. Started Cherry Clough Consultants in 1990.

Has written the following textbooks: “EMC for Printed Circuit Boards - Basic and Advanced Design and Layout Techniques”, 2007; “EMC for Systems and Installations” (Newnes, 2000, co-authored with Tim Williams of Elmac Services).

Has written a many articles on EMC in professional journals and trade magazines, including 5 series for the EMC Journal: “Design for EMC” (1999), “EMC for Systems and Installations” (2000), “EMC Testing” (2001), “Advanced PCB Design and Layout for EMC” (2004-5), and “Design Techniques for EMC” (2006-7). Compiler of the ‘Banana Skins’ column. Member of the editorial advisory boards for Compliance Engineering and Interference Technology magazines.

Presented many papers for a wide range of national and international conferences, symposia, etc., including those organised by ERA, IET and the IEEE’s EMC and Product Safety Engineering Societies.

You will benefit from Keith’s expert consultancy
with Cherry Clough:

Systems and installations: machines and manufacturing plant of all sizes; robotics, air traffic control towers; computer and telecommunication rooms; administration centres; dealer rooms; professional audio; steel rolling mills; hospitals; hotels; chemical and pharmaceutical processing sites, bottling and canning lines; road tunnel lighting schemes, call centres.

Products and equipment: automotive chassis and body electronics; marine equipment; computers, DSP, information technology, PDAs; professional audio consoles; professional video projectors; lighting; telephones and telecommunications; consumer electronics; cellphones; set-top boxes; radio-communications and pagers; lifts (elevators); domestic appliances; gambling machines; gas boilers, medical equipment; coin mechanisms; security equipment; mains-borne communications; laser welding; digital microwave radio; industrial instrumentation, control, and machinery of all sizes; variable speed AC and DC motor drives to 10MW, synchrotrons.

“Tap Keith’s brain” and learn from the EMC services
he has provided for Cherry Clough:

 

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2007 Registration Form (pdf 134kB)  To book fill out pdf. form, save locally & email file with changes to Denise

 

Download the 2007 Brochure (600k pdf)

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