WHAT IS EMC? Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) deals with the study of the interaction of electrical and electronic devices with their electromagnetic environment. All electronic instruments have the potential to emit electromagnetic fields. With the proliferation of electronic devices into everyday life - TVs, Washing machines, Electronic ignitions, Traffic lights, Mobile phones, ATMs, and Anti-theft tags to name a few - there is therefore a huge potential for devices to interfere with one another.

The recently re-activated IEEE student branch at the University of Windsor hosted a seminar on this topic on campus. We invited Joanna Hill, an EMC engineer, from Hella Electronics Corporation and Lin Li from Rhode Schwarz joined her. The two engineers guided us through what EMC is and how it is useful in the present day electronic systems.

The presentation discussed ways to view physical conductive structures in order to enable an engineer to see the antenna structures that result in EMC failures. Attendees learned how to view physical structures not in relation to inches or meters, but in relation to wavelength. This helped to demystify EMC and allow methods of fixing compliance failures to be easier to understand The presentation was not just a discussion but also included practical demonstrations as well as a question and answer segment. The visiting engineers brought with them an antenna and network analyzer for demonstration purposes.

Click on the Image to Launch the Gallery

Vector CANtech is the leading provider of software tools, embedded software components and services to OEMs, their suppliers and various other industries. Vector tools equip engineers with the finest capabilities for design, diagnostics, calibration and testing of distributed networking systems.

A modern automobile has as many as 70 electronic control units (ECUs) for various subsystems, adding more features to cars means adding more control units and more wiring. The industry realized the complexity of the wiring problem and the vehicle networking was introduced in order to provide the flexibility to add and remove options without affecting the entire vehicle’s wiring architecture.