by MontrosePosted on Posted in EMC Topics, The Future of Engineering — No Comments ↓

The smart grid is an engineering aspect of power engineering that affects everyone worldwide.  The IEEE is actively engaged in the Smart Grid Form (http://smartgrid.ieee.org/).  The smart grid is an electrical network utilizing digital technology to deliver electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital communications to control everything electrical at consumers’ homes or industrial locations.  The grid saves energy, reduces costs and increase reliability and transparency if risks inherent in processing massive amount information simultaneously are avoided.  This is where compliance engineering must focus in the future as a way of addressing energy independence and minimizing global warming.  The Internet has made it practical to apply sensing, measurement and control with two-way communications related to electricity production, transmission and distribution all at a high technology level.   The item of concern for engineers both today and in the future is to ensure reliable operation that is free from harmful interference or disruption.

There are five major areas of challenge to ensure a reliable Smart Grid system is not disrupted by a transient or terrorist/abnormal event.

  • Integrated communication networks: Elements of the grid communicating with each other.
  • Sensing and measurements: Data communication received in the control center.
  • Terrorism:  Intentional or unintentional disruption; terrestrial (lightning), extra-terrestrial (solar flares), physical damage (natural disasters), or cyberspace (hacking into the infrastructure).
  • Using advanced components: New technology for advanced capabilities.
  • Integrating Broadband over Powerline (BPL): Ensuring Wideband Local Area Networks signals present on power lines do not cause EMI to commercial communication services.

With the Smart Grid our focus as compliance engineers, both safety and EMC, must be on determining what to work on first; emission or immunity threats, compliance with regulatory standards or electromagnetic compatibility, testing components or finished assemblies, incorporating functional safety, or implementing power saving features.

by MontrosePosted on Posted in EMC Topics, Printed Circuit Board Design, Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

This is my fifth and newest textbook.  EMC Made Simple®-Printed Circuit Board and System Design, is a totally unique publication with regard to how electromagnetic theory is taught for use in applied engineering environments.  No other book ever published brings down to earth the heart of electrical engineering theory and how to actually apply it to real world products. This book presents the field of electromagnetic compatibility in a simplified manner for engineers to create printed circuit boards and systems using basic math along with implementation along with sound physics without the need for extensive computational analysis.  Three primary elements are required for creating a successful design.  

These three primary elements are:

  • correctly implementing transmission line theory
  • creating an optimal power distribution network, and
  • ensuring a proper RF signal return path exist to cancel out undesired common-mode RF field propagation.

All chapters illustrate a unique way of converting, in a visual manner, Maxwell’s Equations (calculus) into Ohms law (algebra) using a hands-on approach.  With only five easy equations any electrical product can be created allowing engineers to comply with electromagnetic compatibility requirements early in the design cycle.  Each chapter simplifies applied theoretical concepts for those who never took a course in engineering or seek to review and understand electromagnetic theory in an unconventional manner.  Engineers and designers will benefit from learning a new approach to solving complex field problems using an oscilloscope instead of a spectrum analyzer.  The book is available through this web site at a discount, Amazon or other third party retailers worldwide.

I hope you will enjoy learning about EMC in a manner that is not taught at the academic level, or in other words, for engineers that have to get the job done quickly and at low cost.

by MontrosePosted on Posted in EMC Consulting, Training and Certification — No Comments ↓

Welcome to Montrose Compliance Services.  Here one will find lots of information and insight related to applied EMC engineering, mostly with a view toward understanding concepts and design techniques using a non-traditional approach that has been proven to not only be unique, but elegant.

The company’s tagline is “EMC Made Simple” along with the derivatives of “EMI Made Simple” and “Maxwell Made Simple“, all registered trademarks of Montrose Compliance Services.  We believe EMC education and training, as it applies to both printed circuit board and system level design, should be easy to understand without the need for extensive computational analysis.  

It is possible to simplify the field of electromagnetic in a manner that helps one solve a an EMC problem, either emissions or immunity, in minutes instead of day by understanding what Maxwell tells us, and not by using the trail-and-error approach hoping to find success when an EMI issue develops.  Details on low-cost professional services are found on this site.

Feel free to post questions or comments on any aspect of regulatory compliance; product safety engineering or electromagnetic compatibility design, test and certification.  You can also email me privately at [email protected]

Mark Montrose

Principle Consultant

by MontrosePosted on Posted in Signal Integrity versus EMI — No Comments ↓

For those that believe computational analysis one key to successful design engineering, allow me to play “devil’s advocate” and say experience is better than simulation.  As a manager, if you had to hire an engineer for a specialized task would you prefer a senior level person with years of experience and whom has probably never performed a simulation in their life, or a junior engineer who knows how to use simulation tools with minimal hand-on experience in design engineering?  There are many who believe that if you do not perform simulations during the design cycle or extensive computational analysis, you are “not doing the job of being a competent electrical engineer”.  What about the thousands of companies and engineers worldwide that have never simulated any design (printed circuit board or system level), nor ever will because they do not have expertise or money to purchase software tools but produce incredibly fantastic products using old school design experience?  This is a question to those who believe that simulation will solve everything.  “What are you going to simulate-a schematic prior to layout without knowing what parasitics exist in the printed circuit board’s constructional material, or post layout analysis that may take days to perform especially if one does not have accurate SPICE or IBIS models?  If simulation shows an RF field is present, exactly what specific component or element caused this RF field to be created?  Frequency domain tools tell us a field is present but not the “actual source or cause of the radiated field”.  For high-technology products of the future, one must simulate a design to ensure functionality in the time domain but does frequency domain analysis provide any real value?  How many hours or day will it take to validate assumptions when there is no time left to put the system into production?  Any experienced EMC engineer may say “Do the design in a manner that I provide guidance on because it will work based on sound engineering knowledge and years of experience, or do you feel luck and trust the results of you simulation?  Maxwell is never wrong”.  Simulation does not always identify design problems but greatly enhances one ability to visualize a potential design flaw and make enhancements that should allow for first time compliance.

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