Central New England

The Central New England EMC Chapter meeting was held on Wednesday October 10th, 2001. The presentation described the new US Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDoC) process for certifying Telephone Terminal Equipment (TTE). The speaker was Larry K. Stillings, President, Compliance Worldwide, Inc., of Sandown, New Hampshire. Mr. Stilling shared that, on July 23, 2001, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formally privatized the Part 68 process for TTE certification. A new organization called the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachment (ACTA) now handles all TTE certification procedures with the exception of waivers. Mr. Stillings also explained the two new processes for how telephone terminal equipment may be approved, either by the use of a Telecommunications Certification Body (TCB) or through preparing an SDoC. The new labeling method for ACTA, filing requirements, and standards in development to cover new technologies were also discussed. 11 members and guests attended and the speaker responded to active participation and questions from the audience. Unfortunately, the meeting scheduled for November 1st had to be cancelled. The speaker was to have been Douglas C. Smith, Independent Consultant and Distinguished Lecturer (DL) for the EMC Society. We hope to reschedule this meeting in March, April or May 2002. We will also schedule a meeting with DL Colin Brench as the speaker around the same time in 2002. No other meetings are scheduled from December 2001 through February 2002. The Chapter avoids meetings in January because of possible winter storms in New England, and because everyone is recovering from the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Dallas

Bill Paschetag, Secretary/Treasurer of the Dallas EMC Chapter, reports that 2001 was a very big year for the Chapter. They were honored to have presentations by three EMC Society Distinguished Lecturers, plus presentations by local EMC professionals. They also had their second annual war story session and plan to continue this at least once each year. The first monthly meeting of 2001 was held at KTL in Lewisville, Texas, on January 16th. Pizza and soft drinks were provided by KTL. The subject of the meeting was a presentation by Tom Tidwell, Manager, Wireless Test Group, KTL. Tom’s topic was “EMC Issues in Low Power Wireless Systems.” Being in the heart of the Telecom corridor, there was much interest in Tom’s presentation. There were 34 attendees at the January meeting which included 17 IEEE members, 17 non-IEEE; there were 11 new attendees. The second meeting of 2001 was held at NTS in Plano, Texas, on February 26th. Pizza was provided by Byrt Scammel, Airep Electronics, and soft drinks were provided by Jim Abel, NTS. The subject of the meeting was a presentation by Doug Smith of D.C.Smith Consultants. Doug’s topic was “Unusual Forms of ESD.” Doug demonstrated potential interference from ESD produced by coins in a bag and from a standard office chair. A digital storage oscilloscope to display the voltage waveform of the ESD was provided by Harry Rosenberg of Agilent – with pick-up and delivery by Jim Abel and Bob Shoffstall of NTS. There were 32 attendees at the February meeting, 20 IEEE members,12 non-IEEE; there were 5 new attendees. The third monthly meeting of 2001 was held at NTS in Plano, Texas, on March 20th. A Tex-Mex buffet was provided by Steve Kasachkoff of Chomerics, and soft drinks were provided by Jim Abel, NTS. The subject of the meeting was a presentation by Joe Butler, President of the IEEE EMC Society and Marketing Manager of the Chomerics Division of Parker-Hannifin. Joe’s topic was “Why Don’t We Have Shielding Effectiveness Standards?” There were 34 attendees at the March meeting, 16 IEEE members, 18 non-IEEE; there were 9 new attendees. The fourth monthly meeting of 2001 was held at NEMKO - Dallas, in Lewisville, Texas, on April 17th. A sandwich and fruit salad buffet and soft drinks were provided by NEMKO - Dallas. The meeting started with a welcome to NEMKO by Matt Fain, NEMKO Marketing Manager. The subject of the meeting was a presentation by Werner Schaefer of Cisco Systems in San Jose, California. Werner’s topic was “Factors Determining Test Speed of Automated EMI Measurements.” There were 20 attendees at the March meeting, 11 IEEE members, 9 non-IEEE; there were 2 new attendees. The fifth monthly meeting of 2001 was held at NTS in Plano on May 15th. Pizza and soft drinks were provided by NTS. The meeting started with a presentation to Jim Abel of NTS for an outstanding contribution to the EMC Society for the past year. Gary Shimko, Chairman of the Dallas Chapter of the IEEE/EMC Society, provided the presentation. It was also announced that Dick Troup, long-time Dallas area EMC professional, had passed away in his sleep the previous Thursday (May 10) following a prolonged illness. The subject of the May meeting was “War Stories” with Carl Irby as the monitor. Steve Juett provided the first War Story on the EMC challenges facing biomedical instrumentation in hospitals. He presented very straightforward slides illustrating the situation. The FDA has no immunity requirements for biomedical instrumentation. [see photos]

Not surprisingly, the myriad of telemetry links and proliferation of personal computing devices and cellphones present challenges to medical equipment used to save lives, the sensitivities of which can be in microvolts! Mark Bushnell shared his war story of how his company sought to save money and time on a lightning certification by performing analysis instead of testing. After review by the certifying agency, the analysis was returned after some time for a more detailed simulation. Finally, after the agency approved the analysis, they required the test anyway. Neither time nor funding for the test was saved. Even though tools may exist to perform a simulation with high fidelity, sometimes the easiest approach is just to execute the test. Finally, Steve Juett provided another story from the biomedical arena — tracing down the source of an interference problem at the hospital to a local TV station trying out its HDTV band. It took some effort to get in touch with the right individual at the TV station to resolve the problem! The Dallas Chapter takes a three-month summer break with no meetings during June, July and August. Similar to an academic schedule, the regular September meeting is the start of the 2001-2002 year. The sixth monthly meeting of 2001 was held at NTS in Plano on September 18th. Pizza and soft drinks were provided by NTS. The subject of the meeting was “EMC Concerns For A Nuclear Power Plant” presented by Jim Press, Director of National EMC Operations, National Technical Systems (NTS). There were 18 attendees at the May meeting, 13 IEEE members, 5 non-IEEE; there was 1 new attendee. The seventh monthly meeting of 2001 was held at Intertek Testing Service (ITS) in Richardson, on October 16th. Pizza and soft drinks were provided by ITS. The subject of the meeting was “Current Status of the R&TTE Directive” presented by Bill Holz, Manager, Global Approval Management Services, ITS. The attendees were given a tour of the ITS facility. There were 23 attendees at the October meeting, 13 IEEE members, 10 non-IEEE; there were 2 new attendees. The eighth monthly meeting of 2001 was held at NEMKO Dallas (Lewisville), on November 20th. Sandwiches, fruit, cookies and soft drinks were provided by NEMKO. The subject of the meeting was “Global Market Access: Safety-EMC-Telecom Compliance” presented by David Lohbeck, General Manager for NEMKO Dallas. The attendees were given a tour of the NEMKO facility. There were 25 attendees at the November meeting, 14 IEEE members, 11 non-IEEE; there were 9 new attendees. This year’s annual Holiday Social was held at Bennigan’s Restaurant in Plano, Texas. Eleven persons attended, six IEEE members and five guests. Arrangements for the social were handled by Bob Shoffstall and Bob Stevens of National Technical Systems in Plano.

France

The French chapter invited EMCS Distinguished Lecturer Professor Sabrina Sarto, of the University of Rome, “La Sapienza”, to speak at its meeting on December 17th, 2001. Professor Sarto presented a lecture titled “EM Performance of Composite Materials and Metalized Plastics for Industrial Applications.” It was a very complete account of recent work on these topics, touching such different subjects as coating technology, modeling of composite panels, numerical issues in FDTD simulation etc., and illustrated by a variety of examples. Following the presentation by Professor Sarto, Dr. Ferdy Mayer presented “Composite Magnetic Materials and Anisotropy,” where he pointed out promising directions for further research on wideband absorbers.

Germany

The annual general meeting of the IEEE German EMC Chapter took place November 21st in Frankfurt/Main. Chairman Professor Heyno Garbe from the University of Hannover welcomed 18 Chapter members and safely guided them through the agenda. Besides the more standard topics to be discussed, two points deserved special attention: First, everybody was happy to hear about the “2001 Chapter of the Year Award” that was given to the German EMC Chapter at the 2001 International Symposium on EMC in Montreal. Therefore, it was agreed to continue the many Chapter activities and good work. Second, in regard to the application of the German EMC Chapter to host the annual IEEE International Symposium on EMC in 2006, it was reported that all necessary preparations and requirements are met. It is planned to hold the Symposium in the historic city of Dresden which will celebrate its 800th anniversary that year. The final and, hopefully, positive decision of the Board of Directors to approve the application is expected in the spring 2002. [see photos]

Israel

On November 25, 2001, the chapter conducted a special evening meeting with four presentations concerning “Selected Topics in EMC Engineering.” The meeting was held in the headquarters of the Association of Engineers and Architects in Israel (AEAI), Tel Aviv. A total of 76 people attended the meeting, the majority of whom are members of the AEAI and the IEEE EMC Chapter in Israel. Chapter members and guest experts prepared all the lectures, which were delivered during the three-hour meeting. The first two presentations were associated with potential adverse effects induced by utility lines EMI – stray current and electromagnetic fields. The next two presentations dealt with EMI effects generated from light trains (electrical trams) that are used in urban mass transportation, and design considerations of a static electricity grounding system. The specific presentation titles were: “Mutual Effects Between Utility Lines and Underground Pipes Located within the Right-of-Way,” by Dr. Yavgeni Katz, Israel Electrical Company (IEC); “EMC and Safety Aspects of 400kV Electrical Power Lines,” by Dr. Yosef Peker-IEC and Moshe Netzer – RAFAEL; “Potential EMI Effects of the Light Train in the Israel Metropolises,” by Mr. Oren Hartal and Moshe Netzer – RAFAEL; and “Design Principals of ESD Grounding – By What is it Different from Safety Grounding?” by Dr. Boris Veprik-RAFAEL. The entire event was a great success as reported by all attendees.

Korea

Professor Dong Chul Park, the outgoing IEEE EMC Korea Chapter Chairman, reports that the newly elected officers took office on January 1, 2002. The new chairman and secretary are as follows: Chairman: Professor Dong Il Kim, Department of Radio Science and Engineering, Korea Maritime University (E-mail: dikim@kmaritime.ac.kr/ Phone: +82-51-410-4314), Secretary: Mr. Jong Hwa Kwon, Division of Radio Technology, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) (E-mail: hjkwon@etri.re.kr/ Phone: +82-42-860-6742).

Melbourne

The Melbourne Chapter held its December meeting at the Indian River Brewing Company. The highlight of the meeting was a lecture by Mr. Doug Smith, an Electromagnetic Compatibility Society Distinguished Lecturer. Doug’s talk was titled: Computer Security for the Engineer, “The Knock in the Middle of the Night.” Doug gave an entertaining lesson in personal computer security, showing us how prevalent the problem of hacker intrusion into home computers is and how we can protect ourselves from unauthorized access. Doug’s presentation, which included many examples taken from his personal experience, left the audience with the unsettling realization that security of our home computers is a serious concern that requires us to take preventive measures. Prior to Doug’s lecture, the crowd enjoyed pizza and cold drinks while mingling informally. The turnout for this meeting was very strong, with over 40 attendees. In addition to local EMCS members, we welcomed a large group of students from the Florida Tech Student Chapter, and visitors from the Canaveral, Daytona, and Orlando IEEE Sections. Participation at our events has increased steadily as the local EMC community and nearby IEEE groups have learned of our activities. Dennis Molly and Kathy Reinhart, officers with the Melbourne and Canaveral sections respectively, have been particularly helpful in spreading word of our Melbourne EMC chapter activities. Of course, most important to the success of our meetings is the availability of excellent speakers such as Doug Smith through the IEEE EMC Society Distinguished Lecturer Program. [see photos]

Minneapolis-St. Paul

Curt Sponberg, Chair, reports that the Twin Cities chapter last held an official meeting in June, to coincide with the Board of Director’s meeting in Minneapolis. In September, the annual EMC event drew about 75 people, members and non-members, for a one-day tabletop show and seminars. The local chapter will not meet again until the latter part of 2002 due to the planning of the 2002 IEEE Symposium on EMC in Minneapolis. Several chapter members are part of the local committee. So, many of us are actually meeting more than ever, at least until August!

Mohawk Valley

After a summer hiatus, the Mohawk Valley Joint EMC/Reliability Chapter held two meetings in November and December of 2001. Both meetings were conducted by Chapter Chair Irina Kasperovich of ANDRO Computational Solutions in Rome, New York. The November meeting featured EMC Society Distinguished Lecturer Doug Smith of D.C. Smith Consultants in Los Gatos, California who gave the talk: Computer Security for the Engineer, “The Knock in the Middle of the Night.” In the talk, Doug covered some of the undesirable things that can happen to one’s personal computer when surfing the Internet and how to avoid them. Screen shots from an attack on Doug’s computer were shown. He demonstrated how the manufacturer of the laptop leaves it wide open to hackers so it can diagnose laptop problems remotely. During a recent trip made by Doug, that weakness was probed four times in two hours over a dialup by hackers! Doug has also shown using a recording of the electromagnetic emissions from his home computer as heard on a short-wave radio, that different computer activities, such a surfing the Internet and printing files, can definitely be identified audibly. This illustrates the critical nature of computer security and the methods unscrupulous individuals can use to directly or even remotely hack into a personal computer. We’ve all heard of the various methods of “sniffing” and extracting electromagnetic signals from mobile communications and computing devices. What is not always apparent is that this can be done using simple radio receivers. Some recent cases of “cyber-terrorism” have been observed where hackers use homemade sniffer probes and consumer radios to measure output signals from personal digital assistants (PDAs) and to decipher personal information. Doug provided the audience with a great deal of food for thought which was well received and appreciated. The December meeting featured Andy Drozd of ANDRO Computational Solutions who presented the topic, Computational Electromagnetics (CEM): A Blend of Science and Art? In his presentation, Andy defined CEM as the blending of physics, computer science, mathematics, and electromagnetics engineering to solve sophisticated problems for simple-to-complex structures with associated electromagnetic boundary conditions. The various factors that force one to ask whether CEM modeling and simulation is both an art and a science were raised. For example, what are the various methods that engineers use to solve problems and how do they compare? What are the unique features of CEM methods and codes? This talk attempted to answer these and other questions using practical illustrations. The presentation was based on a chapter on computer modeling for EMC contributed by Andy for the textbook, Engineering Electromagnetic Compatibility: Principles, Measurements, Technologies, and Computer Models, 2nd Edition by V. Prasad Kodali. The presentation overviewed CEM methods focusing on several widely used techniques and their applicability without rigorously delving into the theory. Although CEM codes have their basis in Maxwell’s equations of one form or another, their applicability and associated accuracies depend on the applied physics, numerical solver approach (full or partial wave, non-matrix, etc.), mathematical basis functions, canonical modeling primitives, inherent modeling limitations, built-in approximations, desired “observables” and so forth. Other factors such as analysis frequency and time or mesh discretization further conspire to affect accuracy, solution convergence, and overall validity of computer models. Concerns immediately arise when the results of predictions using one type of CEM code do not consistently agree with the results of other codes or against measurement benchmarks, begging the question, “which is correct?” Andy’s familiarity with this topic is due to his work in the areas of CEM engineering research and development, multi-spectral information fusion, visualization, and collaborative engineering. He has over 26 years of experience in electrical and electromagnetic engineering, and more recently, in applying AI/expert system technologies to electromagnetic environment effects (E3) computer modeling and simulation. He is currently leading the development of a new IEEE standard and recommended practice for validating CEM computer models. Andy plans to give an encore presentation at the spring 2002 Mohawk Valley EMC/Reliability Chapter meeting and for the Winter meeting of the Rome Academy of Sciences. The Chapter plans to invite at least two more Distinguished Lecturer Program speakers for the 2002 spring and fall meetings.

Nanjing

Wen Xun Zhang, Chapter Chair, reports that the Nanjing Chapter met on November 19th and November 26, 2001. The November 19th meeting was held to discuss chapter business. The meeting was attended by 9 IEEE members and 11 guests. During the meeting on November 26, two technical presentations were given. The first speaker was Da-Gang Fang of Nanjing University of Science and Technology who presented a paper entitled, “Optimized Design of Macrostrip Patch Array.” The second speaker was Ru-Shan Chen of Nanjing University of Science and Technology who presented a paper entitled, “Vector FEM Techniques for 3-D Full Wave EM Problems.” The technical presentations were well attended by 15 members and 44 guests.

Orange County

The Orange County Chapter met on October 24th at CKC Laboratories in Brea, California. Robert Tozier of CKC Laboratories has taken over the Chapter Chair position from Randy Flinders who will continue as Vice Chair. The Orange County Chapter welcomed Brett Robinson of Robinson’s Enterprises, a Consulting and Engineering firm based in Chino, California. Mr. Robinson discussed the pros and cons of using COTS (circuit cards off the shelf) in “customer” driven designs, both commercial and military. For example, a manufacture elects to use an off the shelf video card with their FTN or TFT display. The initial assessment is, “great, it matches; very little design modifications are necessary, and the combination utilizes the latest technologies.” However, the problem is that the entire system was not designed to meet the latest applicable EMC requirements (RTCA-DO160D, Mil-Std-461/462D, Mil-Std-810E/F, CISPR 22, FCC Class B, etc). The solution to these problems was discussed and included back plane design techniques, enclosure design, lightning protections via transorb utilization, custom designed compatible boards, shielding of cards, etc. We had a good turn-out of about 22 attendees. We expect to continue having the meetings at the new location of CKC Laboratories in Brea. [see photos]

Phoenix

Harry Gaul reports that the speaker at the October 4th, 2001 meeting was Garth D’Abreu of ETS-Lindgren in Austin, Texas. The topic of Garth’s talk was “Reverberation Chambers: Design, Testing and Control, A Simplified Approach” which provided a good introduction to our Phoenix Chapter on the many uses of reverberation chambers. In this talk, we learned how reverberation chambers could be used to perform quick radiated emissions measurements. These chambers are often used for accurately measuring the shielding effectiveness of cables, gaskets, and conductive fabrics. One of the most exciting uses of these chambers is to perform radiated susceptibility testing that is very repeatable, even after disturbing the cable and EUT placement in a chamber. Garth explained that aluminum could be used for construction of reverberation chambers in order to minimize losses. But this comes at the expense of having resonant nodes at low frequency that are fairly narrow in bandwidth. This effect can easily be corrected by adding some portable absorbers to “de-Q” the room, but of course at the expense of higher losses. His talk was concluded with a demonstration of software that can be used for calibration and operation of reverberation chambers. Check out the Phoenix web site at https://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/phoenix/phoenixemc/ for the latest schedule on upcoming meetings. [see photos]

Rocky Mountain

The Rocky Mountain Chapter of the IEEE EMC Society held its 11th annual Regional EMC Symposium on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2001 at the Radisson Inn Greystone Castle in North Denver, Colorado. The annual symposium has been a key element of our Chapter program, which has focused on providing the regional technical community with valuable EMC training and education. Attendance at the event was relatively good, considering the date was in the shadow of the September 11 tragedy. A total of 123 members and guests participated in the symposium. The event included 20 exhibitors; with exhibits set up in the area where breakfast, breaks and lunch was provided for all attendees.

The technical program was expanded this year to include three parallel tracks to provide for a broad range of interests. The program included: Full day Tutorial on Fundamentals of EMC by Dr. Clayton Paul; Workshop sessions exploring selected topics presented by experts in the EMC field, including Dr. Eric Bogatin, T.J. Ritenour, Dr. Karl Bois and Dr. David Quint, Dr. Scott Bennett, and Doug Smith; Technical papers on current EMC topics by regional and national authors including: O. Buhler, C. Marrero, Dr. R. Johnk, Dr. Novotny, C. Weil, M. Taylor, T. O’Hara, H. Holden, Dr. E. Bogatin, R. Georgerian, R. Duffy, R. Perala, M. VanDenBergh, G. Senko, T. Robinson and S. Monroe.

The officers of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the EMC Society wish to thank all who contributed to the success of this event. Special thanks to RMC Chapter members Charles Grasso and Tony O’Hara for work in coordinating the technical program and exhibitor arrangements. The complete symposium program, including ex-hibitors and technical program with presentation downloads, is available at https://www.ieee.org/rmcemc/. [see photos]

San Diego

The San Diego Chapter finished a very successful year in 2001 with a pair of well-attended meetings featuring interesting topics and excellent speakers. November brought a great meeting with both EMC and safety offerings. This exciting, double-header featured Don Heirman of Don HEIRMAN Consultants and Dan Hoolihan of Hoolihan EMC Consulting presenting their informative “EMC Measurement Uncertainty—What is Certain and What is Not?” Coupled with Deborah Madsen of Underwriters Laboratories educating us on the subject of “Protection Against Electric Shock: UL 2601-1/IEC 60601-1 Insulation Diagrams,” it made for a very full evening. The San Diego Chapter would like to thank the members of the EMCS Board of Directors that joined us for the meeting. They were in town for their last Board meeting of the year. It was a pleasure hosting them and we look forward to seeing them again soon. The San Diego chapter finished the year with a helpful and entertaining presentation from Dr. Brett D. Robinson of Robinson’s Enterprises on the subject of “EMC Design and Test Considerations for Wireless Communication Products.” This is a topic well suited to the San Diego area due to a local concentration of cell-phone and wireless communication companies. The San Diego Chapter looks forward to an even-better year in 2002 and they wish the same for the other EMCS chapters around the country and the world! [see photos]

Seattle

The Seattle Chapter held a four-hour workshop, from 4:00 to 8:00 pm, in October at CKC Labs in Redmond. Chris Kendall of CKC Labs spoke at the “Design for Test and Immunity Workshop.” The workshop was attended by a “sell out” crowd of 40 people (attendance was limited so the instruction could be interactive). All students received a certificate of completion signed by the instructor and the chapter provided dinner at the half way point of the workshop. The immunity part of the workshop covered such topics as grounding, bonding and shielding for immunity, design techniques for achieving required immunity, including system grounding, I/O cable shielding and shield termination, I/O filtering, PC board layout rules, PCB filtering rules, case shielding requirements, clamping methods, and RF common mode chokes. In addition, immunity analysis — transient and steady state, including the frequency domain transform of typical waveforms, radiated emissions levels and amount of cable voltage coupling was addressed. “Test Methods for Immunity” covered such topics related to EN61000-4-2 (IEC 1000-4-2, et al) such as ESD theory — how ESD is generated and basic physics that describe ESD including capacitance, impedance, charge, voltage, current, and power, radiated immunity, electrical fast transient burst and conducted immunity. Mr. Kendall concluded his presentation with a review of some product specific variations of test methods, including EN55024, Information Technology Equipment, EN55103-2, Professional Audio and Video Equipment, EN61326, Test, Measurement and Instrumentation Equipment, IEC60601-1-2, Medical Devices, EN50130-4, Security Systems and ETS 300 683, Intentional Radiators. This October workshop was FREE to all who attended. It’s part of the extended presentation format scheduled by the Seattle Chapter each fall. In November, the chapter was treated to an incredible graphics display with the lively presentation by Franz Gisin of Sanmina in San Jose. The psychadelic graphics reminded many of those in the audience of “lava lamps” from the 1960s. The title of the presentation was “How to Div Grad Kink and Curl Electrons Into Generating Unwanted Radiated Emis- sions.” In fact, the presentation was so good that it was later formatted into an article and it appears in this Newsletter on page 25. Check it out for all the details of the material presented. The meeting was held at AT&T Wireless in Redmond. The excellent barbecue dinner before the meeting was provided courtesy of Techmaster Electronics. Over 40 chapter members and guests attended this presentation and many stayed well after the meeting to ask questions. [see photos]

Singapore

There was a good turn out for the November meeting that the Singapore EMC Chapter held jointly with the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC, Singapore) who happened to be holding a seminar on “Electromagnetic Compatibility Simulation and Design.” In all there was 30 attendees. Three presentations were featured during the meeting. The speakers were Dr. Chunfei Ye and Dr. Da-Ming Zhang of IHPC and Mr. Wee-Sing Chow of CET Technologies. The presentations covered various aspects of EMC simulation. Dr. Ye gave some useful insight into the role of various techniques and methods used in computational electromagnetics (CEM), such as the use of the Method of Moments or what was otherwise known as the Boundary Element Method in the frequency domain. With regards to simulations in the time domain, Dr. Ye explained the role of Finite Difference Time Domain and Finite Element Models with various Absorbing Boundary Conditions to free space with a finite computational volume. There was a brief introduction of the use of a Perfectly Matched Layer, Hidgon’s operators and a few others. Several illustrations were presented by Dr. Ye dealing with the computation of the capacitance matrix for a wire bonded die in an IC package, radiated emission from PCB nets and several other applications of simulation. Dr. Ye spoke about the results from the use of simulation and presented many illustrations on field distributions in a computer chassis with many apertures as well as arrow charts on the power density functions in the microscopic scale for a via-hole in a printed circuit board. Mr. Chow’s presentation was entitled “System EMC Engineering” and it was targeted at the application of CEM for large-scale system integration projects. The Naval Ship program and the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) were cited as the examples of EMI/RFI modeling and simulation. The simulations were aimed to get a better understanding of the electromagnetic environment and the likely EMI phenomena for a given platform. The results provided the necessary quantitative risk assessment for possible EMI situations at system and equipment levels. Mr. Chow also spoke on the EMC management process throughout the entire project life cycle, in particular EMC requirements in areas of general equipment layout, earthing design, bonding implementation, cabling design and layout. This presentation introduced some installation guidelines and mitigation. Mr. Chow concluded his presentation with a theme based on the importance of EMC awareness and responsibilities among the different groups in an organization such as Purchasing, Assembly/Production, Installation and Maintenance, besides the leading design and test group in a typical project team structure. Dr. Zhang gave a presentation on the Experimental Design and Analytical Modeling of a Reverberation Chamber. The meeting was held at IHPC in the afternoon and IHPC had generously provided the attendees with refreshments during the break between presentations. The event was a unique opportunity for chapter members to mix with members of the industry, and many of them took time off from their busy schedules to attend. [see photos]

Southeastern Michigan Chapter

The Southeastern Michigan Chapter hosted an EMC Measurement Uncertainty Workshop on October 1 and 2, 2001. The workshop instructors were Ed Bronaugh, Don Heirman and Dan Hoolihan. The workshop covered uncertainty basics, distribution functions, calculations and associated guides and standards. Attendees were given software to calculate uncertainties of actual instrumentation from their test laboratories. The workshop was attended by 39 participants and was coordinated by Scott Lytle at the Yazaki North America facility in Canton, Michigan. A tour of the new Yazaki EMC Test Laboratory followed the workshop. The Southeastern Michigan Chapter is now planning their third annual EMC Fest to be held on April 22, 2002. Details can be found on the chapter website at https://www.emcsociety.org. [see photos]

Toronto

Ramesh Abhari, Chair of the IEEE Toronto Electromagnetics and Radiation (MTT-S/AP-S/EMC-S) joint chapter, reports that they enjoyed a meeting and technical presentation on October 26, 2001. The lecture, given by Dr. Amir Mortazawi, was entitled: “Quasi-Optical and Extended Resonance Power Combining Structures.” Dr. Mortazawi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The well-attended meeting was held in the Medical Sciences Building at the University of Toronto.