EMC Certificate Course
This two-day hands-on course presents the fundamental principles of electromagnetic compatibility and signal integrity.
Numerous measurements and demonstrations reinforce the course topics.
The course is intended for both the practicing professionals and the new engineers entering the field.
Course Dates/Times: April & October (Thursday and Friday, 8:30 am – 4:30 p.m.)
Next Course Offering: April 24-25, 2025
Course Location: GVSU EMC Center, 227 Winter Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
Course Fee: $1,250. Payment required prior to course. Course notes included.
Course Presenter: Dr. Bogdan Adamczyk
Course Content Overview - Registration for April 2025
Thursday Morning Session I (8:30 - 10:00 am)
Frequency Spectra of Digital Signals
Frequency content of digital signals, effect of the rise time on spectral content, spectral bounds, and bandwidth of digital signals.
Measurement - frequency content of clock signals.
Electromagnetic Wave Propagation
Electrical length and wavelength, skin depth and high-frequency currents, skin depth and shielding.
Measurement - Skin depth and shielding
Transmission Lines, Voltage and Current Waves
Wire-type and PCB-type transmission lines,transmission line effects, and voltage and current waves along the transmission line.
Measurement – Transmission line effects
Thursday Morning Session II (10:15 - 11:45 am)
Transmission Line Reflections at a Resistive Load and at a Discontinuity
Reflections at a resistive load and at a discontinuity, ringing on transmission lines, and matching schemes to reduce reflections.
Measurement - Reflections at a resistive load and at a discontinuity
Transmission Line Reflections at the Reactive Loads
Reflections at a pure capacitive load, and at RC load. Reflections at a pure inductive load, and at RL load.
Measurements - Reflections at the Reactive Loads
Eye Diagram and High Speed Signal Integrity
Eye diagram parameters, impact of the driver, HDMI cable, and the receiver.
Measurement results: High speed signal integrity and eye diagram
Thursday Afternoon Session I (1:15 - 2:45 pm)
Electric and magnetic field coupling between circuits, mutual capacitance and mutual inductance, and a circuit model of crosstalk
Measurement – Crosstalk between PCB traces
Crosstalk and Signal Integrity
Impact of the signal parameters, circuit topology, and guard trace on crosstalk in time domain
Measurement – Time domain impact of the circuit topology and guard trace
Crosstalk and Near Field Radiation
Impact of the signal parameters, circuit topology, and guard trace on crosstalk in frequency domain
Measurement Results: Crosstalk and near field radiation
Thursday Afternoon Session II (3:00-4:30 pm)
Common impedance coupling between circuits, impact of the return path impedance, and the return current level
Measurement - Impact of the return path impedance and current levels on audio and video circuitry
Non-Ideal Behavior of Resistors, Capacitors, Inductors, and PCB Traces
Non-ideal models of passive circuit components and a PCB trace. Impact of a PCB trace length on impedance of passive circuit components
Measurement – Impedance of a resistor, capacitor, inductor, and a PCB trace
Impact of Trace Length and Decoupling Capacitors on Signal Integrity
Impact of a trace length and decoupling capacitors on signal integrity in a CMOS inverter circuit
Measurement – Impact of trace length and decoupling capacitors
Friday Morning Session I (8:30 - 10:00 am)
Impact of Decoupling Capacitors and Trace Length on Radiated Emissions
Radiated emissions in monopole, biconical, and log-periodic antenna range
Measurement results: Radiated emissions
Impact of Decoupling Capacitors and Trace Length on Conducted Emissions
Conducted emissions in monopole, biconical, and log-periodic antenna range
Measurement results: Conducted emissions
Decoupling Capacitors and Embedded Capacitance
Impact of both decoupling capacitors and embedded capacitance on PDN impedance, and impact of capacitor spacing and power-ground planes spacing.
Measurement - Decoupling capacitors and planes impact on impedance
Friday Morning Session II (10:15 - 11:45 am)
Insertion Loss and EMC Filter Configurations
Insertion loss of a filter and impact of the source and load impedances on the filter effectiveness.
Measurement - Insertion loss of a filter
Comparison of the insertion losses of different filter configurations
Measurement - Comparison of insertion losses
Correlation between Insertion Loss and Input Impedance
Measurement - Comparison of input impedances
Friday Afternoon Session I (1:15 - 2:45 pm)
Alternative Paths of the Return Current
Alternative paths of the low and high-frequency return currents. Impact of discontinuities on the current return path.
Measurement - Return current and impact of discontinuities
Reference Plane Current Distribution
Return current distribution on a microstrip and stripline PCB configurations
Measurement - Simulation results - PCB current distributions
Differential-Mode and Common-Mode Currents
Differential-mode currents vs common-mode currents, common-mode creation, common-mode choke, controlling differential- and common-mode emissions.
Measurement - Differential and common-mode currents emitted by a SMPS
Friday Afternoon Session II (3:00 - 4:30 pm)
Radiated and Conducted Emission Regulations and Testing
Semi-anechoic chamber and OATS radiated emissions measurement methods, voltage method and current probe method of conducted emissions measurements.
EMC lab tour and measurement - Radiated and conducted emissions
Radiated and Conducted Immunity Regulations and Testing
Semi-anechoic chamber and reverberation chamber radiated immunity methods, and Bulk Current Injection (BCI) conducted immunity methods.
EMC lab tour and measurement - Radiated and conducted immunity
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Immunity Regulations and Testing
ESD gun and RC networks, contact and air discharge methods, direct and indirect application of the discharge.
EMC lab tour measurement – ESD immunity
For additional information contact Prof. Adamczyk at [email protected], (616) 331 - 7286
Dr. Bogdan Adamczyk is professor and director of the EMC Center at Grand Valley State University where he develops EMC educational material and teaches university EM/EMC courses and EMC certificate courses for industry. He is an iNARTE certified EMC Master Design Engineer. Prof. Adamczyk is the author of two textbooks: “Foundations of Electromagnetic Compatibility with Practical Applications” (Wiley, 2017) and “Principles of Electromagnetic Compatibility: Laboratory Exercises and Lectures” (Wiley, 2024). He has taught numerous EMC courses for industry and has authored over 100 publications on EMC education, measurement, and testing, and presented hardware demonstrations at several IEEE EMC Symposia. Since January 2017 he has been writing a monthly column “EMC Concepts Explained” for In Compliance magazine, https://incompliancemag.com/
Testimonials
"Excellent material, great cadence of the topics, best class on EMC that I have attended"
"Helped reinforce my understanding of EMC"
"Pace was just right. Definitely helped support better understanding of EMC"
"Design engineers would highly benefit from these courses"
"This course will greatly help me in designing trouble-free EMC robust electronic modules"
"Instructor has excellent subject knowledge"
"Prof. Adamczyk’s presentation style was excellent. I would have loved to have him as a teacher in college"
"Very refreshing and motivating way to teach EMC applications"