Show Highlights

2005 IEEE Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, August 8–12, Chicago, IL, www.emcs.org.

Tim Lusha explained how to verify calibrations for MIL-STD EMI measurements.

The technical program featured sessions on EMC measurements, including papers on EMI measurements above 1 GHz. Andrew Marvin and Yong Cui from the University of York experimented with an enclosure that contained an EMI-radiating board. They found that the position of the board inside the enclosure greatly affected emissions radiated outside the enclosure. Alexander Kriz of ARC Seibersdorf Research followed with "Validating Anechoic Chambers Above 1 GHz Using a Reciprocal Site VSWR Technique." He pointed out that EMI antennas take on different characteristics above 1 GHz.

When discussing experiments on circuit-to-circuit interference, Silent Solution's Randall Vaughn showed how replacing components in a circuit can change its EMC characteristics. Consultant Doug Smith demonstrated how a common ground between two chassis created interference from one chassis to the other.

In "Shielded Enclosure Accuracy Improvements for MIL-STD-461E Radiated Emissions Measurements," Andy Wang and David Wartenkin from General Dynamic Canada explained how they discovered inconsistencies in measurements made in shielded enclosures that complied with the standard. Wartenkin modeled the chamber with software, and his results were consistent with the measurements in the chamber.

Other demonstrations included antenna pattern measurements by Dr. Michael Fogelle of ETS-Lindgren. He showed how the radiating patterns of EMI antennas change at frequencies above 1 GHz. Tim Lusha and Josh Bakk of DLS Electronic Systems demonstrated how to verify MIL-STD measurements. They showed two test jigs for measuring voltage and current using continuous wave and pulsed RF signals.

On the exhibit floor, AR Worldwide (www.ar-worldwide.com) entered the market for EMI receivers with the introduction of the CER2012. The receiver uses a modular design containing plug-ins with several frequency ranges that expand bandwidth from 12 GHz to 90 GHz. Haefely Technology (www.haefelyemc.com) introduced the ECompact4 immunity tester, which performs tests such as surges, electrical fast transients, dips and interrupts, and AC/surge magnetic fields.

Credence Technologies (www.credencetech.com) introduced an active dipole EMI antenna with a built-in equalizing preamp that increases its sensitivity at lower frequencies, making it comparable to a conventional log-periodic antenna. HV Technologies (www.hvtechnologies.com) displayed a lightning simulator for aircraft testing to the DO-160D military standard.

ETS-Lindgren (www.ets-lindgren.com) demonstrated its new LaserPro line of E-field probes. These probes don't require batteries, which gives them an advantage in long tests (typical batteries last 8-10 hrs). The probes get their power from a fiber-optic cable that carries infrared light from a light source. X-EMI (www.x-emi.com) introduced an IC that reduces EMI emissions in serial communications buses.

NIWeek 2005, August 16–18, Austin, TX, www.niweek.com.

Analog Devices (www.analog.com) teamed up with National Instruments (www.ni.com) to announce the availability of the public beta version of the NI LabView Embedded Module for ADI Blackfin processors. The software module provides design engineers with early access to a seamless, graphical dataflow development approach that directly targets Blackfin processors. The companies also announced that NI can integrate Analog Devices' ADIsimADC analog-to-digital converter modeling software with NI SignalExpress to provide engineers with a virtual benchtop for device simulation and evaluation.

A new LabView embedded module provides design engineers with a graphical dataflow development approach that targets Analog Devices’ Blackfin processors. Courtesy of National Instruments.

National Instruments also demonstrated its NI MXI-Express kits for PCI Express control of PXI and CompactPCI systems. Based on PCI Express, MXI-Express delivers real-world sustained bandwidth of up to 110 Mbytes/s to PXI systems. The company also highlighted what it calls the industry's first PC-based multifunction data-acquisition (DAQ) devices for PCI Express. The NI PCIe-6251 and NI PCIe-6259 DAQ devices combine the high-performance PCI Express bus with technology advancements of National Instruments' M Series DAQ to offer engineers and scientists fast analog and digital I/O with the dedicated per-slot bandwidth of PCI Express. The new devices feature up to 32 analog channels with 16-bit, 1.25-Msample/s sampling speed and 10-MHz digital I/O on up to 32 lines.

Concurrently with NIWeek, the PXI Systems Alliance (www.pxisa.org) held a press conference to officially announce its PXI Express specification, which integrates PCI Express and CompactPCI Express technology into the PXI instrument-interface standard. With PXI Express, engineers and scientists can achieve bandwidths up to 6 Gbps per system, representing a 45-fold improvement when compared to traditional PXI systems.

Although PXI Express-compliant products won't ship until early next year, several manufacturers were on hand at the press conference to demonstrate their support for the new spec: Aeroflex (www.aeroflex.com), Ascor (www.ascor.com), B&B Technologies (www.bbtechno.com), Conduant (www.conduant.com), Elma Bustronic (www.bustronic.com), Geotest (www.geotestinc.com), Goepel electronic, and Ztec (www.ztec-inc.com), as well as NI.

In addition, chip makers Intel (www.intel.com) and Xilinx (www.xilinx.com) were on hand to emphasize their efforts to produce the silicon engines that could drive the emerging PXI Express applications.