2002 Meetings

The linked titles of some meetings are the presentations speakers provided.

December 10, 2002: "An Overview of Recent Developments in Nanotechnology" by Dr. M. Meyyappan

Abstract: Nanotechnology deals with creation of functional materials, devices and systems in the nanoscale through exploiting novel properties (electrical, physical, chemical...) arising solely due to the nanoscale. This is a broad enabling technology with expected impact on materials and manufacturing, electronics and computing, health and medicine, energy, transportation, national security and space exploration. The basic science and applications are of great deal of interest to the IEEE community. This talk will provide an overview of novel nanoelectronics concepts based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and molecular electronics, nanosensors and detectors, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), nanoscale materials and fabrication techniques. Please join us and welcome Dr. Meyyappan who will provide you with a glimpse into this new exciting field of Nanotechnology. As usual, the December meeting will include Holiday snacks.

Bio: Dr. M. Meyyappan is the IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Nanotechnology Council. He is the Director of the Center for Nanotechnology at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. His Nanotechnology center, established in 1997, consists of about 50 scientists working on various aspects of Nanotechnology including carbon nanotubes for nanoelectronics, sensors and detectors, molecular electronics, inorganic nanowires for sensors and devices, protein nanotubes, Nanotechnology in gene sequencing, quantum computing, computational Nanotechnology, computational quantum electronics and optoelectronics. His center has strong academic ties through programs for undergraduate and high school interns, and visiting faculty and graduate students. For further information, please visit the web site Web: https://www.ipt.arc.nasa.gov

Dr. Meyyappan's research interests include nanoelectronics, nanodevices and sensors, CVD and plasma CVD approaches for growth of nanotubes and inorganic nanowires. He has published over 80 papers in refereed journals including 25 in Nanotechnology related subjects and has given over 50 Invited, Plenary and Keynote talks and Invited seminars in the last four years. He is a member of the Interagency Working Group on Nanotechnology (IWGN), which is responsible for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). He is the IEEE Nanotechnology Council Distinguished Lecturer. He is also the Conference Chair for the IEEE Nano2003 Conference to be held in San Francisco in August 2003. He has a Ph.D. from Clarkson University and is a member of IEEE, AVS, MRS, and ECS. He is on the Editorial Board of Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Dr. Meyyappan may be reached at the NASA Ames Research Center by email: meyya@orbit.arc.nasa.gov

November 12, 2002: "A Brief History of the EMC antenna, and the Design and Construction of Antennas for EMC" by Stuart Kron

Abstract: One of the key instruments that we use in the day to day business of EMC design and testing is the Antenna. The antenna is essentially a transition by which electromagnetic waves are radiated into free space or vice-versa. What is the history behind the development of the antennas we use today? What considerations were made for the antenna as it is used for EMC test and measurement? Please join us and welcome Stu Kron of Sunol Sciences who will provide you with a glimpse into the background, design and construction of the EMC antennas we presently use today.

Bio: Stuart Kron is an Electrical Engineer with Sunol Sciences Corporation, where he is responsible for antenna development and manufacturing. He holds a B.S. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, and has been designing and constructing antennas for over 20 years. Stu may be reached at 925-485-9260 or by email: stu@sunolsciences.com

October 8, 2002: "Town Hall Meeting - What do you Want From Your Chapter?"

Abstract: After the customary social and introductions, we will have a report from the 2004 Symposium committee chair. The rest of the meeting will be an open forum "Town Hall Meeting" to solicit input from our membership.

This meeting is intended to promote interaction and discussion about useful topics for the technical sessions to be held during the 2002-2003 season. We need to hear from you, our members about what speaker topics you may want to hear about - Are you interested in hearing about new wireless requirements? Do you want to see more reviews of EU and FCC requirements? Or is there more interest in technical subjects such as Integrated Chip level EMI, or advances in measurement equipment, theory and math, or would you like to participate in an open panel discussion on your favorite topic or even your latest test and debug war stories?

The officers of your chapter need your input and ask you to help us plan events for the next 12 - 24 months. Please join us for an open discussion of future topics and other events you want to see.

September 10, 2002: "Our Annual Social and Business Planning Session"

Abstract: The purpose of this event is to promote interaction and discussion about useful topics for the technical sessions to be held during the 2002-2003 season, and to have a good time. This is the opportune time to trade summer vacation stories, find out who is working where, who might have an opening in their company, as well as visiting with your peers again after the summer.

The chapter also invites prospective speakers to attend this session and submit their presentation for consideration. Suggested topics include: measurements (techniques, technology, problems, corrections, calibration); test facilities (shielded rooms, open field test sites, screen rooms, anechoic and semi-anechoic chambers); EM noise sources and studies; design for reduced noise; ESD; antennas and propagation; EMC standards and regulations; EMC and Signal Integrity issues, wireless topics, and computer aided analysis and design.

May 14, 2002: " EMC Regulations and Regulators: What's New, Who's Who" by Barbara Judge

Abstract: Change is the one sure constant there is, and it's certainly true about worldwide EMC regulatory activities. Maxwell was able to describe electromagnetism with just four equations, but it takes thousands of standards to regulate EMC throughout the world, with dozens more being adopted or modified each year. This presentation will cover in survey fashion some of the more pertinent EMC standards that have been recently published for use worldwide, with focus on changes to be expected when (and if) the new version of the EMC Directive is adopted in the EU.

The EMC regulators are also going through changes - certification activities previously the responsibility of governments are also being performed by the private sector, and governments are changing their long-established procedures. What these changes entail and who the players are will be discussed with respect to effort required to obtain EMC compliance for products in today's marketplace.

Bio: Barbara Judge is Vice President of Compliance Certification Services, Chair of the TCB Council, and Vice-Chair of ACIL EMC Committee. She has been working in the EMC regulatory field since 1991, and prior to that she was VP of Sales at Spinnaker Software. She may be reached at 408-463-0885 extension.104 or at: bjudge@ccsemc.com

April 9, 2002: "Electromagnetics Made Compatible" by W. Scott Bennett

Abstract: The existing literature of Electromagnetics has obviously been written almost exclusively for theoreticians and mathematicians, and not for practicing engineers and technicians. And, the time for that to be corrected has long passed. The primary objectives of this presentation are to clarify the basics of Electromagnetics, to show why it causes problems, and to show how a good many of those problems can be eliminated or moderated. Those objectives are met by using a physical point of view, many descriptive figures, and nothing but high-school mathematics. Also, an occasional comparison is made of what is described here and what is given in the literature — to verify what is presented here, and to clarify what is given there. The overall objective is to start to make Electromagnetics more compatible — to study, to learn, and to work with.

Bio: Scott Bennett was a radar repairman in the USAF from 1948 to 1952. He then alternated working as an electronics technician and studying electrical engineering from 1952 to 1967, earning a BS, MS, and PhD in 1963, 1965, and 1967, all in EE, and all from Syracuse University. He was an EE Instructor at Syracuse from 1965 to 1967; an Assistant Prof. at Virginia Polytechnic Institute from 1967 to 1970; a Staff Engineer for Burroughs Corporation in City of Industry, CA from 1970 to 1974; and an MTS for Hewlett-Packard Company in Loveland and Fort Collins, Colorado from 1974 until 1990 when he retired. Since "retiring" his raison d'etre has been to make Electromagnetics much more understandable for all concerned.

March 12, 2002: "How to Div Grad Kink and Curl Electrons Into Generating Unwanted Radiated Emissions" by Franz Gisin

Abstract: Anyone who has spent any length of time wandering around within the EMC discipline, will, on occasion, take time out to pause and reflect on exactly what is it about pushing electrons around on conducting materials that causes them to generate propagating electromagnetic waves in their wake. We already know the size of the structure plays an important role. Structures excited at their natural resonant frequencies radiate at higher levels. We also know different shaped structures, whether they are optimized for maximum radiation — for example an antenna, or optimized for minimum radiation — for example a collection of information technology equipment assembled on a turntable for an EMC emission test, radiate with different efficiencies.

But if we dig a bit deeper, we cannot help but wonder if some portions of the structure radiate more efficiently than others. For example, electromagnetic fields from a simple resonant dipole antenna can be mathematically expressed as a sum of three point sources located at the ends and the middle of the dipole. The implication is that radiation along the dipole elements is not uniform. If this is so, then we must ask ourselves what intrinsic qualities inherent in the shape of a structure causes electrons in some areas of the structure to generate higher levels of electromagnetic radiation than others.

If we can gain a better understanding of the relationships between structure size and shape, electrons in motion, and propagating electromagnetic waves, then we can become better EMC engineers by not designing in these kinds of structures into our products. We know Maxwell's equations accurately describe all electromagnetic phenomena, and so a good starting point is to disassemble these deceptively compact equations and see if we can gain any insight by looking at them in richer detail. We can also gain understanding by modeling and simulating structures that we often encounter in the EMC profession, for example, printed circuit boards and their associated traces, cables, and electronic enclosures. From these two approaches we can then formulate some practical "best design practices" that will help us build products that radiate with minimum efficiency.

Come join us at the March chapter meeting of the IEEE EMC Society and discover for yourself how not to div grad kink and curl electrons into generating undesired electromagnetic fields.

Bio: Franz Gisin received his BS(EE) from the University of Idaho in 1972, and his MS(Applied Math) from Santa Clara University in 1986. Franz has been active in the EMC field for over 25 years. He is currently Manager of EMC and Signal Integrity Design at Sanmina, the worlds largest EMS manufacturer of high performance printed circuit boards and backplanes. He is a past IEEE EMC Society Distinguished Lecturer, and past member of the IEEE Board of Directors. Currently he is vice-chair of TC-10, Signal Integrity, and Steering Committee Chair of the 2004 International EMC Symposium, Santa Clara, CA.

Dr. Zorica Pantic-Tanner is Founding Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Prior to joining UTSA she was Director of the school of Engineering at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Pantic-Tanner's research and teaching interests are in the areas of Electromagnetic Field Theory, Applied Electromagnetics and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). She has published more than 80 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Pantic-Tanner received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nish in Yugoslavia in 1975, 1978, and 1982, respectively. In 1984 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for postdoctoral research in the area of Applied Electromagnetics at the Electromagnetics & Communications Lab of the University of Illinois at Urbana. Dr. Pantic-Tanner is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a member of the IEEE EMC Board of Directors, International EMC Education Committee, University EMC Grant Committee, Vice-Chair of the IEEE International EMC Numerical Modeling Committee, and Technical Program Chair for the 2004 International EMC. She also belongs to the IEEE Women in Engineering Association, IEEE EMB Society, ASEE, SWE, and AHEE.

February 12, 2002: "Cost Effective PCB Design" by John Howard

Abstract: The subject of this presentation will be some of the features in multilayer printed circuit boards which seriously contribute to poor Electromagnetic Compatibility and signal integrity. Featured will be some very common routing practices which are not much of a problem for some signals but are very much a problem for others. Finite element analysis will be presented to highlight these issues from very modest MHz to significant GHz. Finite element method tools readily display the solutions to these problem features. Comprehension about the hazards from these common board construction practices will contribute to better quality signals and fewer PC board turns. This is the "engineered" solution to reducing PCB design cost, and schedule impact.

Bio: John Howard is currently working as a Independent Consultant with specific expertise in the area of Electromagnetic Compatibility and EMC management. His background includes work as a Electronics Technician prior to earning BSEE and MSEE degrees. He has worked as a hardware engineer, engineering manager, and scientific researcher for several bay area companies including Hewlett Packard, Motorola/Four Phase Systems, Lockheed Research, Compaq/Tandem Computers, and others. During the past twenty plus years John has become a leader in the field of EMC. He has authored or co-authored several technical papers on the subject of design for EMC compliance.

John is a Senior Member of the IEEE and past chairman of the Santa Clara Valley IEEE EMC Society. John has been teaching a variety of EMC related courses around the USA under continuous sponsorship by the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee for the past seven years. He regularly presents EMC courses for the SMCBA in Australia and many other companies or organizations around the world. He is a NARTE registered professional EMC engineer and a member of the dB Society. His outside interests include membership in Mensa, general aviation, and classical music.

January 8, 2002: "Circuit Design Trends and Challenges in Multi-Gigahertz Microprocessors" by Stefan Rusu

Abstract: Moore's law drives the VLSI technology to smaller transistors and higher clock frequencies. As VLSI process features shrink deep into submicron territory, leading microprocessor designs have broken the 1GHz limit. This creates new challenges for designers at both the chip and the system level. This presentation will review the trends in submicron design and present the challenges ahead.

At the chip level, the metal interconnects are getting slower with every generation. Copper interconnects and low-K dielectrics will only temporarily ease the burden. To make up for this slowdown and still meet the increasing frequency targets, designers employ aggressive design techniques, like domino logic. This provides higher speed, but with a higher power dissipation. Another emerging technique for achieving higher frequencies is to use dual Vt transistors. The power supply voltage levels are dropping with every process generation, while capacitive and inductive coupling are becoming an increasing concern.

At the system level, bus interface speeds are increasing with every generation. The bus design is shifting from a common clock timing mode to a source-synchronous design that offers wider timing margins. Flip-chip packaging provides better power distribution and shorter interconnects.

Bio: Stefan Rusu is a Principal Engineer in Intel's Enterprise Products Group leading the technology and special circuits design team for the entire Itanium™ Processor Family. He received an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute in Bucharest, Romania. He first joined Intel Corporation in 1984 working on data communications integrated circuits. In 1988 he joined Sun Microsystems working on microprocessor design with focus on clock and power distribution, packaging, standard cell libraries, CAD and circuit design methodologies. He re-joined Intel Corporation in 1996 to drive the clock and power distribution, cell library, I/O buffers and package design for the first Itanium™ microprocessor. His technical interests are high-speed clocking, power distribution, I/O interfaces, low-power design and high-speed circuit design techniques. He has published numerous technical papers and currently holds 12 U.S. patents with several more pending. He has been a member of the ESSCIRC Technical Program Committee since 1998.