9/15/2020

Pre-compliance EMC Testing

with a Real Time Scope

Dr. Eric Bogatin, Signal Integrity Evangelist

Dean, Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy www.beTheSignal.com
Director, Teledyne LeCroy Front Range Signal Integrity Lab
Adjunct Prof, Univ of Colorado, Boulder, ECEE
Editor, Signal Integrity Journal, www.SignalIntegrityJournal.com 1

Teledyne LeCroy Overview

 LeCroy was founded in 1964 by Walter LeCroy
 Original products were high-speed digitizers for particle
physics research

 Corporate headquarters is in Chestnut Ridge, NY

 Long history of innovation in digital oscilloscopes
 First digital storage oscilloscope
 World’s highest bandwidth 12-bit scope (WavePro HD
Series, 8 GHz)

 World’s highest channel count 12-bit scope (HDO8000

Series, 8 ch @ 1 GHz)

 In 2011, LeCroy acquires Bogatin Enterprises

 In 2012, LeCroy was acquired by Teledyne Technologies
and renamed Teledyne LeCroy
 In 2014, Teledyne LeCroy creates the Signal Integrity
Academy
 All of Eric’s live classes, recorded and posted for
streaming
 Additional video content continually added (currently
160 hours of video content)
 www.SignalIntegrityAcademy.com
Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 2

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Design is First About Connectivity

A schematic identifies:
• BOM
A layout represents the physical design
• Functionality
of the interconnects
• Connectivity
• Wires are transparent- no R, no delay The interconnects live in the wires
and the white space of the
schematic

If the interconnects are transparent, design for

performance doesn’t apply. It’s all about connectivity,
DFM, DFR, DFT,…

…but, in almost every design, the are not

transparent

Once connectivity is correct, the only thing interconnects are going to do is screw up the performance
The goal in interconnect design is to minimize how much the interconnects screw things up
Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy

FCC Part 15 Radiated Emissions Certification test

Electric Field Strength: V/m
Units of: mV/m, in dB, with 0 dB @ 1 mV/m FCC Class A
CISPR
(E field is an amplitude, not a power!)

Class B
Class A: 10 m
Class B: 3 m

Class B- more sensitive:

Freq (MHz) mV/m dB mV/m
30-88 100 40
88-216 150 43.5
216-960 200 46
To be safe, keep E < ~ 100 mV/m > 960 500 54

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 4

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How Much Radiated Power from the Source Creates 100 uV/m into
the 120 kHz BW of FCC Test?
1000000

100000

Field Strength ( V/m)

E 10000

1000

5.5
E= Pradiated 100
R
E = far field strength in V/m 10
R = distance from source in m 1.E-09 1.E-08 1.E-07 1.E-06 1.E-05 1.E-04 1.E-03 1.E-02 1.E-01
Pradiated = total radiated power in W Radiated power (Watts)

Only takes 10 nWatt of radiated power from the source to fail an FCC part 15 class B test!

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 5

“There are two kinds of designers:

those who are trying to design
antennas on purpose and those that
aren’t doing it on purpose”

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 6

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Two Fundamental Types of Antennas

Electric dipole Cable shield

Noisy plane
+
+ I
~
- chassis
-

Transmission line
Magnetic dipole

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 7

How Much Common Current will Fail an FCC Test?

f x I x Len
E = 4 x 10 7 = 0.4 mV / m x f x I
R
f in MHz, I in microAmps

100uV / m Only takes ~ 3 uA common

Imax = = 3uA
0.4uV / m x 100MHz current to fail FCC!

This is why we worry about common currents

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 8

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Ground Bounce in a Board Drives Common Currents

f x I x Len
E = 4 x 10 7
R
E= field in V/m
I= current in Amps
Len = length of monopole in m
R= distance to point in m
f= sine wave frequency in Hz

Voltage noise = 100 mV

Impedance ~ 1 kW
CM Current ~ 100 mA
108 x 10 4 x 1
Len ~ 1 m E = 1.2 x 10 6 = 4000 mV / m
R=3m 3
@ 100 MHz

This is why we worry about ground bounce

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 9

Currents Crossing a Return Path Discontinuity

 The trifecta:
 Reflection from the discontinuity

 Cross talk from the ground bounce

 Radiated emissions from the large

common currents

Gap
With gap NEXT

No gap NEXT and

FEXT

Gap
FEXT Near field pick up, with and
no gap
without the gap

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 10 10

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An Important Caveat: Near Field is Not the Same as Far Field

Multipole expansion of the radiated field

1 1 1 1
E(r) = k1  k 2 2  k 3 3  k 4 4 
r r r r
Far field term Near field terms
(dipole) Higher order moments- drop
off quickly with distance

Near field measurements measure multipole moments, not just dipole terms.

Noise measured in the near field may not appear as far field

But, near field measurements do not require a chamber.

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 11

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Why Time Domain

 When there is a switching signal, use it as the scope trigger
 Evaluate the near field emissions synchronous with the switching signal
 Trigger on output voltage noise
Voltage output

Near field emissions from

inductor current

Frequency domain analysis offers a different perspective

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 12

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The Scope We Used Today

 Teledyne LeCroy WavePro HD

 Main features
 4 channels
 8 GHz analog BW
 12 bit vertical resolution
 20 Gsamples/sec (50 psec interval)
 60 fsec rms sample clock jitter
 5 G samples acquisition memory
 Longest acquisition time at max sample rate = 5 G samples / 20
Gsamples/sec = 0.25 sec @ 50 psec resolution!

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 13

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Do Stripline Traces Radiate? Do Microstrip Traces Radiate?

gap

Microstrip
No gap Will there be any
emissions from the
gap stripline traces?

No gap
Stripline- signal
near top plane
gap

Stripline- signal
near bottom plane
No gap

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 14

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Measured near field from current crossing a return plane gap

While MS with return path

SL gap close to plane
SL gap far from plane
MS gap
discontinuities radiate,
stripline traces with return
path discontinuities in one
plane also radiate

SL no gp
MS no gap

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 15

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Good and Bad Layout Affects Ground Bounce and Near Field Emissions

Near field pick up, bad layout

Near field pick up, good layout

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 16

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Switch Mode Power Supply

 Trigger on the output voltage
 Measure the near field emissions from components

Voltage output

Near field emissions from

inductor current

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 17

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Common Currents On External Cables and Ground Loops

 USB hub drives the uC
board
 No common current on the
USB cable.
 Connect the ground to
other devices, generates
common currents in the
cable
 Different ground potentials
between different
instruments, give different
ground loop currents.

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 18

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Summary
 Time domain analysis is one leg of a de-bug strategy
 Allows identifying potential noise sources which are synchronous with
switching signals
 Simple to do with existing equipment
 Near field E, B probes
 Simple 10x probe pick up loop
 RP4030 Active rail probe for power rail measurements
 CP031A Active Hall effect, high bandwidth clamp on current probe
 Provides insight into
 Return path discontinuities
 Currents not tightly coupled to a return plane
 Ground loops and different ground potentials

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 19

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The Scope We Used Today

 Teledyne LeCroy WavePro HD

 Main features
 4 channels
 8 GHz analog BW
 12 bit vertical resolution
 20 Gsamples/sec (50 psec interval)
 60 fsec rms sample clock jitter
 5 G samples acquisition memory
 Longest acquisition time at max sample rate = 5 G samples / 20
Gsamples/sec = 0.25 sec @ 50 psec resolution!

Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy 20

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