EMI Measurements, Modeling, and Reduction of 32-Bit High-Performance Microcontrollers

Abstract

This paper presents a full electromagnetic interference (EMI) study of high-performances 32-bit microcontrollers (MCU). First, two types of standard radiated emissions measurements have been executed on a device. Then, EMI modeling has been simulated with the help of a predictive SPICE model. Finally, modifications has been studied and implemented in order to reduce the EMI levels. The aim of this paper is to be able to predict, during the design stage, the level of electromagnetic emissions in order to establish design, layout, or packaging rules. The modeling part, which is the most important, is intended to represent the EMI behavior of a microcontroller when it is running in a noisy mode (reading accesses to the embedded nonvolatile memory Flash memory and CPU running). The simulated results have then been correlated with radiated emission measurements. All measurements are following the International Electrotechnical Commission 61967-2 or 61967-3 standards whereas the model has been simulated by the ELDO simulator.