Expanding the frequeny range for DPI testing

of IC’s above 1 GHz: an alternative proposal

Johan Catrysse 1,2, Davy Pissoort 1,2, Filip Vanhee 1,2
1
MICAS/ESAT/KULeuven
2
Flanders’ Mechatronics Engineering Centre
KHBO – KULeuven Association
Zeedijk 101, B8400 Oostende
johan.catrysse@khbo.be
davy.pissoort@khbo.be
filip.vanhee@khbo.be

Abstract — Characterizing Integrated Circuits (IC’s) against
immunity may be done in different ways, as defined in the set of
standards EN IEC 62132-x. Especially, the subpart EN IEC
62132-4 defines a test setup called Direct RF Power Injection
method (DPI) and is specified for the frequency range from 150
kHz up to 1 GHz. Although it is a well defined measuring
method, problems are occurring above 10 MHz in order to
estimate the right immunity level of the IC under test. In more, it
should be of great interest to have the method available above the
frequency limit of 1 GHz. In this paper, a test setup is proposed
to overcome both requirements.
Keywords: IC’s, immunity, DPI
I. INTRODUCTION
The characterization of IC’s against immunity may be done
in different ways, as defined in the set of standards EN IEC
62132-x. Especially, the subpart EN IEC 62132-4 specifies a
test setup known as DPI. The system is well defined and
consists of a 50 Ohm injection path, as shown in figure 1.
As can be seen, the system is a 50 Ohm RF power
injection setup, where the forward injected power is controlled
by means of a directional coupler. The immunity level of the
IC under test is specified as the level of this forward injected
power at the moment that a change in the behavior of the IC is
observed. The reflected power is only used as a measuring
parameter, but is not used for the specification of the immunity
behavior or level of the IC under test.
In order to protect the RF amplifier against the DC bias of
the IC, a coupling network is introduced, which mainly
consists of a DC blocking capacitor C, in series with an
optional resistor R . The default value of the DC blocking
capacitor C is 6.8 nF and the optional resistor R may range up
to 100 Ohm.

Figure 2. Typical single pin power injection (figure taken from [1])

II. RESTRICTIONS IN PRACTICAL USE

Considering the frequency range and the practical
implementation, a number of restrictions for practical use over
the whole frequency range are observed.
In the lower frequency range, the DC blocking capacitor C
still represents an equivalent impedance of about 250 Ohm.
Given the fact that normally most of the input impedances of
IC’s (linear and logic) are rather high, this will not cause an
important error regarding the immunity level.
Figure 1. Typical setup for DPI (figure taken fom [1]) Real problems will occur at higher frequencies.
 First of all, the impact of the length of the PCB traces and
the size of the components must be taken into account at the
high end of the frequency range. As the wavelength at 1 GHz is
30 cm in free space, traces and components exceeding 30 mm
length will have an impact on the measurements, as the
equivalent load impedance for the 50 Ohm injecting line will
change during a frequency sweep. Therefore, it is already
recommended in the EN IEC 62132-4 standard that the DC
blocking capacitor C and the optional resistor R and the
accompanying traces should not exceed a length of 15 mm
(which represents 1/20 wavelength at 1 GHz).
Figure 3. Schematics showing the 15 mm requirement on traces and
components on a test board (figure taken fom [1])
Secondly, due to parasitic effects of the leads, components
will have a dominant inductive behavior at higher frequencies.
Depending on the type of component (SMA, size, etc. …), this
will already occur in the medium frequency range.
Figure 4. Equivalent circuits and impedance of R and C
In more, the external pins and the internal bonding wires
will also add some inductance to the circuit. It might be
estimated that the DC blocking capacitor circuit will change
into a virtual inductive component in the frequency range in
between 1 and 10 MHz, depending on the type of components.
From the HF equivalent circuits for a capacitor and a
resistor, it follows that a typical behavior of the impedance of
the DPI capacitor will change from capacitive into inductive in
the frequency range between 1 and 10 MHz. It follows that a
same immunity level of the IC under test will be obtained,
when the external source is driving the system at an increasing
level of 20 dB per decade. Depending on other parasitic effects
of both the IC under test and the board lay out (including
discontinuities due to external components which may generate
a CM signal [15]), other effects may occur at higher
frequencies. The influence of the test setup itself and the
external components has been reported in literature by several
authors [2] – [3].
A typical immunity graph is given in figure 5, for a test case
where a DC blocking capacitor of only 1 nF has been used. The
use of a smaller DC blocking capacitor (default value 6.8 nF)
allows the implementation of DPI at higher frequencies, but
limits the lower frequency range. The increase by a slope of
about 20 dB per decade is identified in the frequency range
above 100 MHz, and other effects are observed at higher
frequencies, all depending on the layout of the test board and
‘external’ components with respect to the IC under test.
Figure 5. Typical immunity graph for an IC using DPI [2]
The typical range of forward power to be injected with
respect to automotive applications is suggested in the standard
EN IEC 62132-4. Regarding [4], this reflects immunity testing
equivalent to impinging fields ranging from about 100 V/m
upto over 200 V/m.
Table 1. DPI injection levels for automotive applications
 III. REQUIREMENTS FOR A NEW PROPOSED METHOD
In this section, the requirements are identified for the
application of DPI at frequencies above 1 GHz:
- regarding the technical characteristics of most HF
amplifiers, the proposed system MUST block any DC voltage
that is present at the tested pin of the IC
- regarding the fundamental concept of DPI, the system
must have a 50 Ohm injection path to the tested pin of the IC
- the newly proposed method must be able to handle
medium power signals, up to at least 5 Watt injected forward
power, as can be seen in table 1 for automotive applications
- it is preferred that no additional components are required,
such as a DC blocking capacitor, to exclude all parasitic
effects due to the measuring setup itself
- the injection unit should be easily inserted in the total DPI
measuring setup
The proposed directional coupler can be used as an external
device, allowing a simple straight forward design of the PCB
test board itself. All traces on the testboard could be designed
as having a 50 Ohm characteristic impedance, and only the
components needed for the correct working of the IC have to
be inserted on the test PCB board, as it is also the case in real
applications of the IC under test. In case an AE is needed for
a representative state of activity of the IC, this connection is
maintained without influencing the working of the AE, due to
the directivity of the directional coupler.
Regarding the requirement on power handling, the
directional coupler may be constructed by using thin metal
plates for medium and high power requirements, and a PCB
based µstrip realisation is possible with respect to lower power
requirements.
The basic concept of use is shown in figure 7.

IV. A NEW PROPOSED METHODOLOGY

It should be noted that most of the HF amplifiers do not

allow to be coupled into a system with a direct DC bias.
Therefore, it is an essential requirement that there should be a
DC blocking capacity in the proposed methodology. In the
past, several alternative methods has been used by different
research groups, in order to characterize the immunity
behavior of some components [11] – [14], but only adapted to
the purpose of the undertaken research.
The use of a directional coupler, based on coupled
transmission lines, is suggested. It is clear that there is a
complete DC decoupling in this case. The basic concept is Figure 7. Basic concept of the proposed methodology
shown in the next figure.
Referring to [6]-[8], a practical circuit has been designed
and constructed:

- 3 dB coupling factor to minimize the power needed

- bandwidth (- 3 dB) of 1 – 6 GHz
- overall 50 Ohm characteristic impedance
- circuit consisting of 3 coupling sections
- optimal flat bandpass characteristic (‘Butterworth’)

Figure 6. Basic concept of a directional coupler with coupled transmission Figure 8. Three section Directional Coupler
lines, with DC blocking between RF source and load
 This leads to the following set of design parameters for
coupled transmission lines:
- quarter wavelength frequency: 3.735 GHz
- section 1 & 3: Zeven = 55 Ohm and Zodd = 45 Ohm
- section 2: Zeven = 147 Ohm and Zodd = 17 Ohm
The analysis of the complete 3 section circuit using the
software package Agilent-ADS [9] gives the following
results, showing the input reflection coefficient S11, the
through power S31, the coupled power S21 and the uncoupled
port S41. The frequency scale ranges from 1 up to 6 GHz.
Using edge coupled transmission lines, this leads to the
following construction parameters (height between both
ground planes is 40 mm):
- section 1 & 3: width of the strips: 56.36 mm
separation between strips: 7.95 mm
- section 2: width of the strips: 16.83 mm
separation between strips: 4.84 nm
Figure 9. 3 section realisation of edge coupled lines
A practical implementation using edge coupled transmission
lines is shown in figure 10.
Figure 10. Picture of the practical implementation
Figure 11. Coupled port S21 and through port S31
Figure 12. Reflection at imput port S11 and uncoupled port S41
The very small separation at the central section 2 is
practically not realizable (0.0048 mm). In practice, the
separation is about 0.15 mm and leads to a coupling
coefficient of only 10 dB instead of the 3 dB as anticipated, as
shown in the following measurement result.
coupling S21 of directional coupler
0
-5
-10
coupling S21 in dB
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
1.00E+00 1.00E+01
frequency in GHz
coupling S21 of directional coupler
Figure 13. Measurement of the coupled port S21 using the practical
realisation of figure 10.
The small separation s at the central section is forthcoming
from the requirement of a strong 3dB coupling parameter. By
allowing a less strong coupling of 6 dB or even 10 dB only,
this central separation will be reduced to more acceptable
dimensions, allowing an easier mechanical construction. On
the other hand, more power will be needed to maintain
identical injection levels at the IC circuit itself.
 Another possibility is to use broadside coupled lines:
- section 1 & 3: width of the strips: 26.7 mm
separation between strips: 28.5 mm
- section 2: width of the strips: 27.57 mm
separation between strips: 3.03 mm
These dimensions seem to lead to a realizable mechanical
construction of the unit and a prototype will be constructed in
the near future.
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, an alternative methodology for applying DPI
immunity testing of IC’s is proposed, by using a directional
coupler, overcoming the problems of parasitic effects due to
the DC blocking capacitor and other components. The
proposed methodology maintains a matched 50 Ohm injection
path up to the tested pin of the IC, and allows a direct
connection to any AE, if needed.
Theoretically, a 3 dB coupler might be proposed, having the
advantage that only twice the RF power is needed with respect
to the immunity test level at IC circuit level. In practice, a 6
dB or even a 10 dB coupler might still be of practical use,
leading to physcially more realizable models, requiring a
higher level of RF power, but still acceptable for realistic test
conditions.
Future work will be oriented towards:
- a design with a larger bandwidth (starting at 100 MHz),
- and a combined used of the unit for both immunity and
emission testing [10]
- an asymmetrical impedance behavior (50 Ohm/150 Ohm),
so that a 50 Ohm system is maintained for the RF source
and better match could be obtained towards the normalized
150 Ohm CM impedance of systems and circuits. This
could be used as an alternative method for injecting
induced currents in the external cabling of larger systems
and machines, simulating the induced currents from
external EM fields [16].
REFERENCES
[1] EN IEC 62134-4, Integrated Circuits – Measurement of electromagnetic
immunity, 150 kHz to 1 GHz – Part4: Direct RF Power injection
method.
[2] A. Boyer, S. Bendhia and E. Sicard, “Modelling of a Direct Power
Injection Aggression on a 16 bit Microcotroller Input Buffer”, Proc.
EMC Compo 2007 (Torino)
[3] A. Alaeldine, R. Perdriau, M. Ramdani and J.L. Levant, “A Direct
Power Injection Model for Immunity Prediction in IC’s”, IEEE Trans.
on EMC, Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 52-62, February 2008
[4] F. Vanhee, D. Pissoort, J. Catrysse et al. , “Towards Realistic Test
Levels for Bulk Current Injection up to 6 GHz”, Proc. EMC Europe
Wroclaw 2010
[5] Jean-Baptiste Gros, Geneviève Duchamp, Jean-Luc Levant, “A
immunity Measurement Bench Dedicated to Analog to Digital
Converter”, Proc. EMC Europe Wroclaw 2010
[6] S.B. Cohn, “Characteristic Impedances of Broadside-Coupled Strip
Transmission Lines”, IRE Trans. on MTT, vol. 8, nr. 6, Nov. 1960
[7] E. Cristal, “Coupled Transmission Line Directional Couplers with
Coupled Lines of Unequal Characteristic Impedances”, IEEE Trans. on
MTT, vol. 14, nr. 7, July 1966
[8] J. Shimizu and E. Jones, “Coupled Transmission Line Directional
Couplers”, IRE Trans. on MTT, vol. 6, nr. 5, Oct. 1958
[9] Agilent EEsof EDA, Advanced Design System (ADS), Agilent
Technologies Inc., Santa Rosa CA (USA)
[10] F. Musolino, “Measurement of IC-Conducted Emissions by Employing
a Backward-Wave Directional Coupler, IEEE Trans. on EMC, vol. 59,
nr. 7, July 2010
[11] I. Chahine, et al., “Characterization and Modelling of the Susceptibility
of Integrated Circuits to Conducted Electromagnetic Disturbances up to
1 GHz”, IEEE Trans. on EMC, vol. 50, nr. 2, May 2008
[12] G. Winkler and B. Deutschmann, “Störfestigkeit integrierter
Schaltungen gegenüber hochfrequenten leitungsgeführten Störgröpssen“,
EMV Fachtagung, May 2006
[13] I. Chahine, et al., “Modelling of IC Susceptibility to Conducted
Electromagnetic Disturbances using Neural Networks Theory“,
Electronic Letters, vol. 42, nr. 18, August 2006
[14] J. Bazzoli, B. Demoulin et al., “Susceptibility of IC connected to wiring
systems”, Proc. IEEE Symp. 2EMC, Rouen, September 2005
[15] J.Catrysse et al., “A model for the DM to CM conversion for unbalanced
devices at PCB level”, Proc. EMC Europe York 2011
[16] F. Vanhee, D. Pissort, J. Catrysse et al., “Towards realistic test levels for
BCI upto 6 GHz”, Proc. EMC Europe Wroclaw 2010