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Traditional Methods, Resource Limitations Unable to Keep Due to the complexity of ensuring EMC compliance, many
Pace with Increased Demands companies are turning to expert systems to solve their EMI issues.
To make matters more difficult, very few engineering tools are An expert system, such as the Mentor Graphics QuietTM Expert
available to prevent immunity issues and ensure that products meet tool, can gather PCB data and make value judgments based on
EMC standards, and most of the methods used today are both time- EMC rules. The rules can be made up of both electrical and
consuming and costly. Additionally, some design team members physical constraints. An experienced EMC engineer can design and
may not thoroughly understand how to identify and address EMC create these rules. Then other designers can then take advantage of
issues during their phase of the design cycle. that engineering experience by applying those rules to their designs.
Quiet Expert can detect situations such as IO sources that are
For instance, hardware design engineers may understand EMC coupled to susceptible circuitry or a noise current on a wire that is
issues but may not be familiar with PCB design tools. Conversely, leaving the board. This expert system also includes additional rules
PCB designers may be familiar with advanced routing procedures that utilize proven algorithms based on University of Missouri-
but may not understand how some of these routing techniques can Rolla (UMR) and industry research. These tested and proven
cause EMI. Even in the best of circumstances, many EMC rules algorithms are used to determine capacitor effectiveness,
cannot be entered into typical PCB software tools so it is difficult to power/ground stability and the modes causing radiation.
know if rules communicated by the hardware engineer were Furthermore, expert systems provide detailed reports of discovered
actually followed by the PCB designer. And, it is difficult to errors and can offer advice and instruction to address these
comprehensively and concurrently prevent all possible types, violations.
causes and consequences of EMI on all nets.
Conclusion
Prior to fabrication, many EMC engineers manually review Expert systems can provide fast, thorough and consistent PCB
their PCB designs to look for suspicious areas in the routing that checking to flag potential EMI issues early in the design cycle,
may potentially cause radiation by either inadvertently creating when they are relatively easy and inexpensive to address. Even after
unwanted antennas or adding noise to susceptible IO signals. These fabrication or testing in a chamber, an expert system can also be
PCB reviews require EMC expertise developed over time and,
used as a valuable debugging tool. With tools like Quiet Expert,
oftentimes, the few engineers with these EMC skills cannot provide
adequate support for the whole organization. This time consuming companies can now leverage the expertise of a few EMC specialists
approach is prone to human error as some problem areas may be and ensure that these EMC guidelines have been followed
overlooked or inconsistently evaluated and is further complicated throughout their organization before sending their PCB designs out
when large PCB designs are built with several layers. for fabrication.
This document contains information that is proprietary to Mentor Graphics Corporation. The original recipient
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notice appears in all copies. In duplicating any part of this document, the recipient agrees to make every
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